Huawei continues its journey towards technological independence with the operating system that governs its devices. A path he embarked on by force, but embarked on with the determination of someone who has no other choice. So the Chinese giant will drop support for Android apps with the next version of your HarmonyOS.

To summarize the story for those who don’t know, Huawei went from being one of the most popular consumer electronics manufacturers, especially in the Android mobility segment, to one of the brands that should be left behind if you don’t want to. you want to complicate your life. It all happened as a result of the United States’ veto of this and other Chinese brands, which were accused of posing a risk to national security.

From 2019 to 2021, there was a lot of action, reaction, action… But the truth is that today Huawei is still unable to provide a set of basic applications and services from Google on its devices, among other components, with the commercial handicap that this implies. And I say Android because although the company countered the situation by launching its own HarmonyOS operating system, it’s well known that it’s just Android by another name.

This applies to all devices that Huawei has launched on the market in recent years HarmonyOS, an Android derivative in the style of Amazon FireOS: fully compatible with Android at the application level, but lacking elements such as those mentioned (GApps are examples), in one case due to not going through Google hoops and in the other due to force majeure. Well, it looks like Huawei will follow Amazon’s lead with Vega Linux, but in their own way of course.

will do with HarmonyOS Nextanother version of the system that goes beyond what has been seen so far, and which, without knowing yet whether it is a derivative of Android or something else, will leave support for Android applications, a real statement of intent, because it is one thing it’s another thing to ditch AOSP and turn your back on all software compatible with it.

However, according to 9to5Google, anyone who has had the chance to test the development builds of HarmonyOS Next has verified that APK files cannot be run (Android executables) and not only that: Chinese sources report that Huawei is hiring many programmers to provide applications to the new? OS. We’ll have to see how this plays out, as HarmonyOS Next is expected to be on all of the brand’s devices that launch in the near future (2024 is being talked about, but you never know).