Huawei releases HarmonyOS 5.0 in beta as it pushes adoption of its Android alternative

Huawei has started rolling out the latest update to HarmonyOS, which the company says now has 15,000 native apps and services

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Huawei has started rolling out the beta version of HarmonyOS 5.0, as it pushes to raise adoption of its Android alternative in mainland China. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 10:18pm, 22 Oct 2024Updated: 1:22am, 23 Oct 2024

Huawei Technologies has launched HarmonyOS 5.0 with an eye on boosting adoption of its mobile operating system after a year of strong growth in the Chinese smartphone market owing to a breakthrough mobile processor.

The latest version of HarmonyOS – which was referred to as HarmonyOS Next during a testing period that saw the OS move away from its Android roots – already has 15,000 native applications and services, Richard Yu Chengdong, chairman of Huawei’s consumer business group, said at an event on Tuesday.

The number of native applications is 10 times higher than in June, when Huawei released a beta version of HarmonyOS Next, according to Yu. “We have carved out a new field in just one year, and achieved what foreign ecosystems have been doing for over a decade,” Yu said.

HarmonyOS Next, which Huawei touts as being independently developed, no longer supports Android-based applications and has been dubbed “pure blood” HarmonyOS in China.

The company said public beta testing for HarmonyOS 5.0 has started to roll out as of Tuesday to Pura 70 and Pocket 2 series smartphones, as well as the MatePad Pro tablet.

It will be available in more handsets next year, including its latest trifold Mate XT smartphone and mid-range Nova models, according to the company. HarmonyOS Next is currently available on Huawei’s Mate 60 series, the Mate X5 foldable smartphone and its 13.2-inch MatePad Pro tablet.

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