When the Trump administration decided to block Huawei’s access to US companies and services, the smartphone maker teased HarmonyOS as its next platform for smartphones and other IoT devices. And while we did get a glimpse of it back in August 2019, its public debut, many fans of the brand bet on it to be the Android OS replacement. One year later, can we expect the company to use HarmonyOS for future smartphones? Huawei CEO, Richard Yu, shared that it has no plans in 2020. However, it doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen in 2021.
This year’s Huawei Developer Conference, the company will announce the second version of HarmonyOS. Unfortunately, not a single info leaked regarding it. I guess we just have to wait for the conference to happen, which got scheduled for September 10 until 12. While a Huawei phone with HarmonyOS in 2021 feels a bit optimistic, Senior Vice President at Huawei, Vincent Yang, said that this is a Plan B only in case things get worse with the US. Google’s Android is still their first choice of OS for mobile devices due to the ecosystem and business partners.
With that in mind, don’t expect Huawei to debut HarmonyOS globally despite the lack of support from Google. The company still wants you to use Android and other third-party services to bring the same experience you once had during pre-ban.
