Huawei unveiled HarmonyOS Next recently with one major change – there will be no support for APK files, which are the native Android apps. Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei, revealed the new OS is ready to be rolled out to end users, stirring confusion among Huawei owners across the globe.
Huawei’s own set of apps
One week after the announcement, the company issued a clarification that overseas units will not receive the new OS. Mobile phones and tablets outside China will keep using EMUI – a HarmonyOS lookalike, which is based on the Android Open Source Project, but lacks the Google services and apps, and will continue supporting native Android apps.
According to China Mobile, Huawei will “continue to increase its support for developers around the world”. The company developed a huge community of app developers, solely working on making sure Android apps from third-party stores are working properly on its Google-less phones.
Multiple times, Huawei executives assured us, both on and off the record, that support for phones and tablets in global markets will keep growing, and the company still sees itself as a major software and hardware manufacturer in the world of mobile phones.
Google Maps on a Huawei P60 Pro with limited features, downloaded from a third-party app store
We also have an official confirmation that Huawei will keep using Emotion UI (EMUI) branding for its overseas devices until it is absolutely confident that customers will be ready to accept the move to HarmonyOS.
Source (in Chinese)
