A day earlier, HUAWEI introduced the MatePad Pro tablet and the HUAWEI Watch 3 – both of which run on the HarmonyOS platform. These definitely won’t be the last products to run the in-house software as more new gadgets are in the pipeline – including the P50 flagship. However, the company also plans to upgrade its older smartphones to HarmonyOS. Not one or two, but a total of 100 phones and tablets will get a taste of the HarmonyOS update. 

Starting from June 2, HarmonyOS will be made available for recent flagships such as the HUAWEI Mate 40 series, HUAWEI P40 series, HUAWEI Mate 30 series, and the MatePad Pro tablets. The company’s most recent foldable – the HUAWEI Mate X2 – will also be treated to the software migration process.

HarmonyOS 1

In the third quarter of the ongoing year, the HUAWEI Mate Xs foldable will be upgraded to HarmonyOS, alongside older flagships as well as mid-rangers. The second wave of the planned software migration will include the HUAWEI Mate 20 series, HUAWEI Nova 8, 7, and 6 series, as well as the older MatePad family of tablets.

HarmonyOS 2

Even phones that were launched as far back as 2017 will get a taste of HarmonyOS in the first half of 2022. This batch of devices will include the likes of HUAWEI P10 and P20 series phones, HUAWEI Mate 9 series, and the HUAWEI M5 tablets. The company also plans to release the update for its lineup of smart displays and smart TVs well.

HarmonyOS 3

HUAWEI’s Richard Yu claims that HarmonyOS will take your experience of using its hardware to the next level. The Chinese company has opened registrations for getting the software update via the MyHUAWEI app, and will also offer the upgrade facility at its experience stores.

HAUWEI is hawking HarmonyOS as a brand-new distributed operating system that runs across a wide range of devices such as phones, tablets, smartwatches, and smart TVs. Even though HUAWEI has denied claims that HarmonyOS is based on AOSP and a fork of Android, the code-base is nearly identical to Android.

HarmonyOS 4

“HarmonyOS 2 is a commercial version developed by Huawei based on the open source project OpenHarmony 2.0 for smart devices used in different scenarios. Android is developed based on AOSP open source project. HarmonyOS supports multiple kernels,” a HUAWEI spokesperson told TheVerge. However, the company appears to have recited a different story in an interaction with another publication.

“To make sure our existing users can still enjoy the experiences that they are familiar with in our phones and tablets, Huawei uses the open source code from AOSP in HarmonyOS on the condition of complying with open source license rules and fulfilling related responsibilities and obligations,” Chenglu Wang, President of Software Department & President, AI and All-scenario Intelligence Business Unit at Huawei, was quoted as saying by ComputerBase.

If you want to know more about HarmonyOS and how it is essentially an Android fork with a high degree of customizability and visual overhaul, read this excellent investigation from ArsTechnica.