Huawei’s venture into developing its own Android-based smart device platform has yielded some rather interesting results on the Chinese manufacturer’s behalf, allowing it to carve its own Android branding without fully resorting to Google’s smart platform and ditching otherwise proprietary software offered by the latter. As such, Huawei recently announced that it will begin rolling out the latest version of its HarmonyOS for several supported devices.
HarmonyOS is currently on version 4.0.0.108, although users interested in trying out this new version should know that this version is currently a public beta phase, although we should get more news of a stable version soon enough.
Which Devices are Compatible?
At the moment, the HarmonyOS 4 beta is available for 34 different Huawei devices, including both smartphones and tablets which are listed below (courtesy of the folks over at Huawei Central).
- Huawei P60
- Huawei P60 Pro
- Huawei P60 Art
- Huawei Mate X3
- Huawei Mate X3 Collector’s Edition
- Huawei Mate 50
- Huawei Mate 50 Pro
- Huawei Mate 50 RS Porsche Design
- Huawei Mate 50E
- Huawei Pocket S
- Huawei P50
- Huawei P50 Pro
- Huawei P50 Pro Collection
- Huawei P50E
- Huawei P50 Pocket
- Huawei P50 Pocket Art Edition
- Huawei Mate 40
- Huawei Mate 40 Pro
- Huawei Mate 40 Pro 4G
- Huawei Mate 40 Pro+
- Huawei Mate 40 RS Porsche Design
- Huawei Mate 40 RS Porsche Design Collection
- Huawei Mate 40E Pro
- Huawei Mate X2
- Huawei Mate X2 4G
- Huawei Mate X2 Collection
- Huawei Mate Xs 2
- Huawei Mate Xs 2 Collection
- Huawei Nova 11
- Huawei Nova 11 Pro
- Huawei Nova 11 Ultra
- Huawei MatePad Pro 11-inch performance version
- Huawei MatePad Pro 12.6-inch 2022
- Huawei MatePad Pro 12.6-inch 2021
New Features
Of course, this latest iteration of HarmonyOS will come with a ton of new features available to users, such as new theming functions, and additional software for younger and elderly users. Huawei has added new personal themes, which come with different templates, colour selections and layouts, which offer users a very in-depth means of customizing their Huawei device.
There’s also a new Interactive Theme, which features mood themes with expressive emoji systems that can be used to create user-exclusive mood-based wallpapers, a Panoramic Weather theme that changes based on real-time weather data and information, and can even use gravity sensing to display on-screen visual effects based on current weather conditions. HarmonyOS 4 will also bring users the new “Live Window Feature,” which helps users keep an eye on their task progress.
Changes to the Notification Center have also been included with the beta software update, so notifications are now clustered and partitioned, and are sorted reasonably according to their importance. Additionally, notifications under the same app will be aggregated into dynamic cards, with added animations for a more “refreshing” user experience.
For the Application Control Centre, Huawei has made adjustments to the card-based design, giving users a more visible and convenient interface. The App control centre will also proactively control any possibly risky applications, and can restrict access to sensitive permissions, hide real user data, restrict the use of system capabilities, among others. Furthermore, the Privacy Center can also support application tracking activities to be refined to certain apps, and users can turn off the tracking ability of such apps.
For kids and elderly users, HarmonyOS comes with its own family sharing function via Huawei ID, allowing parents to monitor the location of multiple devices being used by children and control how long they can access and use the device. Meanwhile, Elderly Care provides users with an enlarged display effect, and even comes with a harassment interception setting function to give older users a safer user environment online.
Users who own any of the supported devices above can take part in HarmonyOS 4’s public beta through the My Huawei app, although availability might vary.
