It's the right time to join HarmonyOS.

At HDC.24 (Huawei Developer Conference 2024), HarmonyOS NEXT officially debuted. As the initial native HarmonyOS, HarmonyOS NEXT has garnered significant attention since its launch, accounting for a considerable share in terms of app quantity and device scale, truly indicating that "the general trend is set."

Compared to iOS and Android, the two pioneers, what sets HarmonyOS NEXT apart? The three most impressive features are its full-scenario capability, native AI, and native security.

At the distinctive "HDC Breakfast Meeting" during HDC, Xiao Lei (ID: leitech) felt the enthusiasm of HarmonyOS developers in person. Jia Yongli, President of Huawei's Terminal Cloud Services Xiao Yi Business Department, the Chief Architect of HarmonyOS Applications and Meta Services, and HarmonyOS Product Management and Technical Planning Experts, shared how native HarmonyOS drives service experience and distribution capabilities through technological innovation. The key focus was: how developers can apply and tap into HarmonyOS's native AI capabilities, leveraging Xiao Yi Intelligent Agent, Meta Services, and full-scenario intelligence to develop innovative applications.

Native AI is one of the core strengths of HarmonyOS NEXT

In 2019, when HarmonyOS was born, large-scale AI technology was just emerging, and OpenAI had already released GPT-2, a language model with 1.5 billion parameters. With the release of GPT-4 in 2023, large-scale models began to showcase their astonishing power, leading to the "Hundred Models War," and the era of general AI has officially arrived. In 2024, AIGC and large-scale models are being implemented on a large scale, with personal, household, automotive, and other terminals being fully intelligentized, resulting in an increasing number of AI terminals and AI applications.

In the AI era, there must be an AI-native OS. Both Android and iOS are OSs for the mobile era, lacking cross-device compatibility across all scenarios and not designed for AI at the core. Even the newly released iOS 18 is merely Apple's significantly restructured OS for the AI era, but it is not natively designed or thorough, offering weak support for multi-terminal devices, especially for large terminals like cars and small terminals in the "Internet of Everything."

HarmonyOS NEXT, born for the full-scenario AI era, is well-timed and possesses multiple unique advantages:

1. Full-scenario capability. HarmonyOS NEXT supports all smart devices, big and small, and can achieve seamless flow between different devices based on its unique file system and communication protocol. For example, it boasts powerful cross-device Share collaboration features, enabling the use of mobile phone cameras/albums on PCs.

2. Native intelligence. HarmonyOS NEXT's Harmony Intelligence, based on Pangu's large model, Xiao Yi Intelligent Agent, Meta Services, and Intent Framework, enables devices to support powerful AI functions. This allows the OS, system applications, and third-party applications to tap into system-level AI capabilities more thoroughly, develop AI applications with lower thresholds, and provide users with more innovative services.

3. Native security. It focuses on privacy protection, ending the chaos of privacy protection caused by the fragmentation of Android applications. Facing the era of intelligent interconnection of all things, it rebuilds a new security system, "StarShield Security Architecture," to achieve native security from the kernel to the framework, system, and applications.

Full-scenario capability, native intelligence, and native security are not isolated but mutually supportive and synergistic. For example, many AI applications cannot be completed solely by a single device and rely on the maximized perception capabilities of multi-device collaboration and seamless service flow across devices. Another example is that native security is crucial because AI and full-scenario capabilities place drastically higher demands on data security.

(Image Source: HDC24)

Possessing these three characteristics simultaneously means that HarmonyOS NEXT is well-prepared for the AI full-scenario era.

How does HarmonyOS help developers embrace AI?

What OS-level support does HarmonyOS NEXT provide for developers embracing AI? At the HDC Breakfast Meeting, Leitech got the answer.

Firstly, support for intelligent agents.

With AI devices having the ability to maximize perception, the transformation of intention centered interaction is accelerating. In the new era of human-computer interaction built by AI, no matter the entrance to the Internet or OS, it is no longer a search or recommendation page, but a natural interactive agent.

The Xiaoyi intelligent agent based on Hongmeng's native intelligent architecture will be one of the interactive entrances of the Hongmeng ecosystem. It will fully support developers in building intelligent agents in the "software and hardware cloud" dimension.

According to Jia Yongli, President of Huawei's Terminal Cloud Services Xiaoyi Business Unit, Xiaoyi Intelligent Agent has been comprehensively upgraded based on the HarmonyOS native intelligent architecture, and its memory perception ability has covered 23 TOP scenarios. The success rate of reasoning and planning tasks has reached 90%. Xiaoyi Intelligent Agent has mastered a trillion token knowledge reserve and has access to over 300 key services.

Developers do not need to deal with underlying big model technologies. They only need APIs based on the many AI capabilities of small art intelligent agents to develop and access intelligent agent services. Based on the entry point of small art intelligent agents, users can obtain traffic distribution.

Taking reasoning planning as an example, through planning and distribution, small art intelligent agents can collaborate with multiple domain intelligent agents to complete complex tasks, complete cross application tasks such as search, document, and email, and achieve continuous services between different applications. When a user issues a complex command, the Xiaoyi intelligent agent can provide general skills and assign professional tasks to intelligent agents in various fields.

Domain agents are responsible for providing professional skills in various fields and completing sub tasks. In addition, domain agents can also independently deliver, test, deploy, evolve, and interface with different large models. Based on this, the Xiaoyida model can generate a PDF file of the specified content in the document according to instructions, and then send the file to the corresponding contact person via email.

That is to say, based on the intent framework of Xiaoyi intelligent agents and other capabilities, developers can independently serve users in the domain intelligent agent mode, or collaborate with other domain intelligent agents to jointly serve users well. Jia Yongli revealed that the intent framework has been integrated with 70+developers, covering 10+vertical domains and 200+intentions. He called on all partners to work together to build a new ecosystem of Hongmeng's native intelligence.

Secondly, there is support for meta services.

As a carrier for HarmonyOS AI distribution, meta services can help applications achieve efficient distribution and orchestration of services. The meta service is free of installation and bound to the system account, allowing the system to distribute a massive amount of cloud side meta services. Meta services can be embedded into applications, enabling conversational AI distribution without the need to exit the distribution stream, improving the operational efficiency of applications; Meanwhile, meta services and applications can achieve efficient data synchronization, thereby improving the accuracy of distribution.

Taking Naixue's tea element service as an example, distributors can choreograph and combine the element services based on the above characteristics, convert user intentions into instruction flows, and provide real-time feedback. For example, when a user says to Xiaoyi, "Xiaoyi, help me order a cup of domineering Eastern pomegranate," the system can break down the intention based on an AI big model and choose to recommend Naixue's tea yuan service from a massive number of meta services. Users can use it without installing it. And the meta service can be embedded in the Xiaoyi dialogue for execution, without interrupting the current distribution flow. In addition, developers can make real-time adjustments to the input and output results of the meta service, take the next steps, and further improve the user experience.

In Xiaolei's view, "meta services" are like "mini programs", which are what users see is what they get, and can be used without installation. But unlike mini programs on super applications, it is OS level, so developers can better access OS level capabilities; It is born for AI, thus enabling AI distribution and mining of AI capabilities.

Finally, there is full scenario support.

In the past, developers developed applications for OS and devices, such as Android mobile applications. In the era of full scenario AI, developers are developing applications for users, and users may switch between different devices. Therefore, AI full scenario applications must consider how to indirectly continue, flow, and collaborate in different devices and scenarios to achieve "user centered services".

HarmonyOS, born in the era of all scenarios and supporting various devices, has the natural advantage of providing all scenario services. It has opened up a complete set of SDK, distributed capabilities, AI capabilities, and other ecological capabilities. Based on the fusion of virtual and real devices, program frameworks, and agent development infrastructure, HarmonyOS will make the differences of massive devices transparent to developers. Developers can freely call system level capabilities such as application frameworks, systems, media, graphics, AI, and application services, allowing applications to reach users in all scenarios and provide seamless services.

All software and hardware applications will be refactored by AI

Not only does OS need to be prepared for the era of AI in all scenarios, but developers also have a strong desire to embrace AI.

On the one hand, AI hardware is in full swing, with AI smartphones, AI PCs, AI TVs, AI home appliances, AI robotic vacuum cleaners, AI educational hardware, and almost all intelligent terminals embracing AI big model technology. The automotive industry even claims that "the first half is electrification, the second half is intelligence".

On the other hand, all software applications will undergo a transformation based on AI big model technology. New forms of Internet applications, such as AI search, AI e-commerce, AI social networking, have emerged in the market. At the same time, Alipay, Little Red Book, Today's Toutiao, Meituan, Hunglema, Didi and other applications are also using AI big model technology to reconstruct products and provide users with better services. For example, Alipay is strengthening the "intelligent assistant" function, so that users can obtain personalized services in the application through natural voice interaction.

In addition to software and hardware products targeting the C-end, vertical scenarios targeting the industrial level are also fully embracing AI big models. Digital employees are working in large numbers in enterprises, assisting human employees in coding, designing, creating, and reviewing reports... Industries such as intelligent finance, intelligent manufacturing, and smart agriculture are embracing AI technology, forming intelligent solutions based on AI driven software and hardware.

That is to say, in the era of AI full scenario, all software and hardware applications, whether aimed at C-end or B-end applications, must be oriented towards the AI OS base and reconstructed using AI technology.

In the era of universal AI, how do developers embrace AI, develop AI software and hardware applications, and solutions? Hongmeng NEXT provides the most comprehensive, native, and practical solution.

The HDC Breakfast Meeting is a featured sharing project of Huawei Developer Conference. Although it is necessary to wake up early to participate, the developers are quite enthusiastic, and in the hot, relaxed and enjoyable dining atmosphere, they obtain the hard dishes developed by Hongmeng. The early bird catches the worm, just like the current Hongmeng ecosystem and AI development, developers with keen sense of smell have already entered the game first, successfully laid out, and broken through the game first. More developers are running into the field, as Huawei Terminal Chairman Yu Chengdong called for on HDC.24: "Joining HarmonyOS is just the right time.".