SHENZHEN - Huawei has officially released the beta version of HarmonyOS 7 for developers. This new operating system represents a major step for the company into the era of artificial intelligence (AI) smartphones.
According to a report from China Daily, HarmonyOS 7 introduces spatial computing capabilities and significant updates designed for the era of AI agents. An AI agent is an intelligent system that can understand commands, take action, and assist users with various tasks.
Rapid Growth and Ecosystem Expansion
Yu Chengdong, Executive Director of Huawei and Chairman of the Terminal Business Group, announced that the number of devices running HarmonyOS 6 has exceeded 66 million units. This milestone makes HarmonyOS the second-largest smartphone operating system in China.
"This milestone means that the HarmonyOS ecosystem has entered a new phase in terms of user scale, moving from technical validation to large-scale expansion," Yu stated.
The HarmonyOS ecosystem now includes 11 million registered developers. Additionally, the Huawei AppGallery now hosts over 400,000 applications and services, with more than 23,000 of them natively adapted for HarmonyOS.
Deep AI Integration and Cross-Device Connection
Unlike other systems that only add AI shortcuts, Huawei built HarmonyOS 7 from the ground up with artificial intelligence at its core. The system architecture now centers on "Harmony Intelligence," an agent-based framework with the Xiaoyi voice assistant serving as the main core. Huawei aims to make HarmonyOS the first operating system in the industry to be completely reconstructed by AI.
Huawei is also expanding this ecosystem across multiple platforms, including:
- Personal computers (PCs)
- Smart screens
- Smartwatches
- In-car systems
The company wants to create a seamless user experience that connects smartphones, tablets, wearable devices, computers, and automobiles.
The OpenPangu 2.0 Model and Computing Challenges
At the Harmony Developer Conference 2026 in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, Huawei open-sourced its large language model, named openPangu 2.0. The largest version of this model features 505 billion parameters. Parameters are the internal components that help an AI system recognize patterns and generate answers.
However, Yu acknowledged that Huawei currently faces limitations in computing power.
"Most of our computing power is used to support the needs of other domestic companies, so the resources left for us are very limited," Yu explained.
Because massive AI models require high computing power and heavy financial costs, Huawei focuses on developing models with hundreds of billions of parameters to achieve better computing efficiency.
Yu also shared that he was reassigned to lead Huawei’s large language model development prior to October 1 last year. He expressed strong optimism for the future of the project.
"I will lead the team to catch up and surpass others, moving from number one in China to number one in the world. In my dictionary, there is no second place, only first," Yu concluded.
