Huawei’s Android replacement turns out to be a clone of Android 10. No discernible difference found in HarmonyOS

Since the announcement of HarmonyOS for smartphones by Huawei, there has been a debate on the web about how much the new mobile platform will differ from Android.

The problem was compounded by the limited access to the beta version of HarmonyOS. Now the author of the authoritative publication ArsTechnica Ron Amadeo (Ron Amadeo) was able to test it and draw conclusions.

HarmonyOS is “Android 10 without distinction,” he said. He describes HarmonyOS as a fork of Android with an EMUI shell and a few minor changes. At the same time, even the shell remained an exact copy of the EMUI version that Huawei installs on its Android smartphones.

According to Amadeo, there is nothing wrong with creating Android forks and running as operating systems under your own brand, but you should do it openly and transparently:

Forking Android and launching your own rebrand operating system is okay. But be honest. Tell “HarmonyOS is a fork of Android” instead “HarmonyOS is not a copy of Android”… Don’t call HarmonyOS “brand new”if the opposite is true. ”

In early January, a top Huawei manager said that HarmonyOS is not a copy of iOS and Android and listed the main differences. You can already watch a live demonstration of HarmonyOS 2.0 on the Huawei Mate 30 smartphone online.