Huawei’s effort to create a completely new operating system, with its own code and compatible with multiple devices, has been titanic. Since the US Administration blocked access to Google, the company was clear about the solution: to be completely independent from the rest of the world.
2026 aims to be a great year for HarmonyOS, a system that according to Richard Yu will have applications at the iOS and Android level starting next April. The point is that, although comparisons are inevitable, Huawei plays in its own league.
The breakup. A few years ago, when Huawei had to create an emergency plan to continue operating, it developed HarmonyOS with Android as a base. In other words, the ROM was still EMUI (Huawei’s customization layer), but without Google services.
But, from the beginning, Huawei was clear that it would end up creating an interoperable operating system, designed not only for mobile phones, but for cars, wearables and computers.
The peak. Not too long ago, Huawei completed its plan. HarmonyOS became a solution based on 100% own code, without a trace of a single line of Android. The plan has worked, and China is embracing a domestic product that promises to compete directly with iOS and Android.
In recent statements, Richard Yu has stated that the quality of the native HarmonyOS apps will equal those of iOS and Android in quality, expecting to reach 100 million updated devices before the end of the year.
What exactly is the promise? Achieve parity in terms of raw performance and security, with the aim of eventually surpassing the user experience of the two most used systems in the world.
Competing in another league. Having shed the pressure to sell outside China, Huawei can compete in a different league. One in which the fragmentation problems that Android has suffered for years do not exist (in fact, 90% of Huawei devices from recent years are already updated), and with an ecosystem that makes much more sense in its native country.
HarmonyOS is no longer an emergency exit in the face of a veto, it is a show of technological muscle in the Chinese software industry.
Far beyond Android. HarmonyOS Next is owned by Huawei, but HarmonyOS is an open source system operated by OpenAtom. The company has played its cards so that its operating system is not just a commercial solution, but a huge ecosystem “independent” of Huawei and integrated within other companies.
The key? Huawei, at least in China, is at the point it wanted: it is not just a rival to Android and iOS, it is much more. It is proof of its technological independence in terms of software, a blow to giants like Google (which have been trying to dominate other sectors for years, such as vehicle software with solutions like Android Automotive).
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