Huawei begins their transition away from Android with Harmony OS rollout
Huawei is in a bit of a pickle right now where they are no longer able to access Google Play Services for its mobile devices. This means that while their phones and tablets still run Android, it will lack certain key Google services that contribute to the overall Android experience.
The company did previously announce its own operating system, Harmony OS, which is meant to be an alternative to Google’s Android, and it looks like the transition has kicked off. Huawei has recently started to recruit developers who might be interested in helping them develop apps for the Harmony OS platform.
Those who are interested can actually take part in the Harmony OS 2.0 beta, although you will have to register for it through Huawei’s website. Also, not all devices are eligible for it, and from what we can tell, it seems to be pretty much all the devices that did not ship with Google Play Services installed.
This includes the P40 series, the Mate 30 series, and also the MatePad tablets, although oddly enough the Mate 40 is not eligible. We should also point out that this is a beta version of the software meaning that it is far from being ready for the public, so if you do own an eligible device, it might not be the best idea to use it as your daily driver.
We’re not sure when Harmony OS will replace Android in Huawei’s future mobile devices, and more importantly, if Huawei ever gets removed from the US Entity List, would they go back to Android? Either way, it seems that the world might soon be able to look forward to an alternative to iOS and Android.
Source: XDA Developers