Huawei will 'cut off' Android apps

Since the restrictions in 2019, Huawei has been forced to adapt its software to the new situation, completely bypassing Google's services framework to form HarmonyOS - a modified version of Android with its own code and compatible with .APK files (although its code renames the file format later).

Huawei sẽ 'đoạn tuyệt' với ứng dụng Android - Ảnh 1. — HarmonyOS Next, released in Q1 2024, will no longer support .APK files

Now, according to Sound China Morning Post , Huawei wants to go one step further. HarmonyOS Next is the successor to HarmonyOS and is a “pure” version of HarmonyOS without Android libraries and replacing current versions of the platform.

When HarmonyOS was first released, Huawei claimed that it wasn’t Android. However, subsequent research has shown that most of what’s on the OS’s interface is based on Android and renamed in the package files to disguise it as their own. The App Gallery itself is a repository of .APK files, identical to the ones we’d find on Android. Key APIs, native system functions… everything has Android roots.

But according to Chinese sources, some of the country's major tech companies (JD.com, NetEase, and Meituan) are encouraging Huawei to cut ties with Android and hire developers to create their own apps based on HarmonyOS. The goal is to break ties with Android and make the system 100% independent.

As a result, developers were invited by Huawei to attend a conference to test the incompatibility of HarmonyOS Next with APK files. These developers confirmed that HarmonyOS Next was developed by Huawei itself and stopped using AOSP code.

Following its developer conference in China last August, where HarmonyOS was introduced to its fourth version, Huawei confirmed that the development of native apps is complete, with the .HAP format being the default in HarmonyOS.

The first preview of HarmonyOS Next is expected to be released in Q1 2024, a version where the operating system will no longer be compatible with Android apps — a move further away from Google's operating system and towards a fully developed ecosystem in China.

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