Huawei’s post-Android operating system, HarmonyOS, has reached its third major release. The original was unveiled in mid-2019, then version 2 arrived and reached 90 million users by September last year. It now powers over 300 million devices with another 170 million devices using the HarmonyOS Connect platform (a way for third-party companies to create compatible devices). And now comes version 3.
HarmonyOS 3.0 has already made its debut with the reveal of Huawei MatePad Pro 11, which is expected to reach international markets soon. The new operating system has a new look, improved widgets and even multitasking.
First of all, let’s take a look at the format of the Universal Card widget. They are easily adaptable with different shapes, sizes and styles. This allows them to be grouped together when it makes sense, the widget will automatically adjust its size to fit. And when there are too many to fit, you can stack them on top of each other and flip them over easily.
The new operating system also has the ability to connect with two pairs of certain headphones (e.g. the FreeBuds Pro 2). This allows you to listen to music with a friend. Connectivity is an important part of the system, but before we get to that, let’s take a look at the new privacy features.
The new version of the operating system keeps a log of how often each app accesses your location, camera, microphone, files or contacts. It will show you a graph so that you can decide to remove the permissions manually, but the system can also do it automatically. It will also keep an eye on malicious app behavior, suspicious network activity, and other threats. Untrusted apps can be granted bogus permissions, which will allow them to open, for example, a seemingly empty image gallery or SMS mailbox with nothing in it.
Check which apps have accessed your location • Granting bogus permissions to apps
The system also has simple tools to remove potentially sensitive data while sharing photos, such as the embedded time and location. It can also scan screenshots and blur phone numbers, addresses, and so on.
Huawei has also worked on optimizations. HarmonyOS 3.0 improves startup time and app responsiveness and reduces power consumption while gaming (compared to HarmonyOS 2.0).
HarmonyOS 3.0 expands the central idea of the system: to create “super devices”, which are the combination of two or more intelligent devices working in unison. The user interface is pretty simple, you get a view of the connected devices as bubbles and you simply drag one bubble onto another to merge them into one super device.
Creating a super device is as simple as drag and drop
Here is a simple example: You are editing a video on your Huawei MateBook, but want to use a larger screen. For example, if you have a MateStation X, simply drag the monitor icon onto your laptop icon and wireless screen sharing is activated immediately.
Easy screen transmission
HarmonyOS devices don’t need to be on a shared Wi-Fi network for the super device magic to work. They will perceive each other, for example a Huawei tablet next to a Huawei phone will allow you to answer calls and display SMS messages as if they are the same device. You can also perform the above trick and play games and videos from your phone on the larger tablet screen.
A HarmonyOS phone can connect to a tablet, giving it access to 4G, calls and messages
This seamless multimedia interconnectivity extends to HarmonyOS smart TVs as well. For example, you can take two smart speakers (eg Huawei Sound X) and use them as stereo speakers for the TV. Or, if you need to keep it low, you can use a couple of TWS gems instead, all linked with the simple drag-and-drop interface.
Listen to your TV through a pair of connected smart speakers or using TWS earphones
The ecosystem extends beyond Huawei products. You can have a compatible treadmill and pair it with a Huawei watch to track your workouts and even play some music if you add a headset to the super device.
HarmonyOS Connect also allows third party companies to build devices
HarmonyOS is now also in cars (see our review), this allows you to stream smartphone apps to the car dashboard, similar to Android Auto. This also extends to smart home gadgets.
HarmonyOS now has an alternative to Android Auto
Huawei plans to start a mass upgrade of existing devices to HarmonyOS 3.0 in September. The list of supported devices has yet to be announced.
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