At the Huawei Full scene press conference on September 24, HarmonyOS NEXT officially announced the start of beta testing, allowing ordinary users to finally upgrade to the new HarmonyOS NEXT beta version and participate in the beta activities. This is a relatively mature version that is very close to the final commercial version, allowing users to comprehensively experience the true advantages of HarmonyOS NEXT. After using HarmonyOS NEXT for some time, my feeling is that it "wins in details and excels in experience," marking the beginning of a brand-new intelligent era.

Winning in details, balancing efficiency and aesthetics

For mobile phone systems, aesthetics, details, and smoothness, which may seem unrelated to functionality, actually account for a significant portion of the user experience. The IOS system is often praised precisely for these aspects. While Android is limited by some design aspects of the system itself, it can only come close to IOS in terms of related experiences, and few dare to claim it surpasses IOS. However, HarmonyOS NEXT starts anew and does not bear this burden, so I believe it excels in design and detail, truly balancing efficiency and aesthetics.

Light effects are one of the most impressive aspects of HarmonyOS NEXT. Generally, this term is often associated with gaming products, but HarmonyOS NEXT's application of light effects is truly refreshing. Light effects are visible when adjusting digital keys, adjusting the focal length, sharing photos, and when a stylus attaches to a tablet, as if God said, "Let there be light," and all operations are illuminated. This interactive feedback is advanced and clear, providing a superior alternative experience for users who dislike vibration feedback.

Complementing this feedback, HarmonyOS NEXT also introduces unique gravity animations that redefine the animation experience using the principles of inertia from the physical world. It demonstrates force feedback through natural duration, bouncy rebound, and real-time interruption, endowing the virtual world with physical laws that even surpass those of IOS, renowned for its animations. This attention to detail creates a harmonious and authentic feeling.

Aesthetics is another standout feature of HarmonyOS NEXT. The overall design is filled with circular elements, from buttons to graphics, and incorporates a central axis symmetry, creating a sense of balance and harmony. The real-time color engine achieves rich color variations across various interfaces, not only aligning with users' preferences but also enabling consistent synchronization across multiple devices, something unprecedented.

In addition, HarmonyOS NEXT boasts sophisticated designs, such as using depth of field changes to create a sense of space in a flat plane, presenting elements in a sequential order to evoke a sense of time, employing long presses for direct access to enhance operational layering, and utilizing various composition rules to shape the interface's structure. These details and aesthetic nuances provide users with a refreshing aesthetic experience upon opening the system.

The head of Huawei's UX design stated that HarmonyOS NEXT restores the beauty of the real world through digital technology, embodying Huawei's advocacy of harmonious aesthetics. This aesthetics combines light, form, color, force, time, and space with efficient interactions like tapping, swiping, dragging, and pinching, forming the core aesthetics and interactive experience of HarmonyOS NEXT.

Excelling in experience, making AI ubiquitous

A crucial comment by the head of the HarmonyOS team regarding HarmonyOS NEXT is that it is the world's first operating system to truly achieve native intelligence. Firstly, HarmonyOS genuinely integrates AI capabilities into the operating system, AI-enabling all controls. Secondly, it incorporates AI model capabilities, pioneering the integration of large AI models at the end-side while ensuring end-cloud collaboration for native intelligence. Thirdly, it supports the integration of third-party large models. These are the hallmarks of HarmonyOS NEXT's native intelligence.

Native intelligence implies that AI is integrated into the system's foundation, resulting in a far superior experience compared to systems that retrofit large models later. For instance, the AI navigation bar resides at the bottom of the screen, allowing users to drag text, images, or documents directly into it. Xiaoyi (Huawei's AI assistant) can then create calendars based on text, extract tables, and summarize documents. This one-click functionality seamlessly integrates AI into various tasks.

Furthermore, Xiaoyi accurately recognizes on-screen content. When you look at a map and ask how long it will take to reach a destination, Xiaoyi can answer directly without the full question. This interaction aligns with human habits, assuming that if you can see it, Xiaoyi can too. HarmonyOS NEXT is the first to achieve this, and I suspect only native intelligence-driven systems can match this level of recognition and interaction.

Moreover, native intelligence endows Xiaoyi with memory capabilities. If you've previously sent someone your ID photo and later ask Xiaoyi for it, it can retrieve the conversation, a remarkable feat. Additionally, Xiaoyi excels at photo editing, voice-to-text transcription, and audio restoration.

These functions underscore the immense value of native intelligence. AI can access all phone information and query, extract, edit, and modify it through various interactions. Such AI truly serves as an intelligent assistant rather than an AI-powered but cumbersome tool requiring full queries each time. Only when human-AI interactions mimic human-to-human communication can we experience seamless convenience and speed. Achieving this through existing system modifications would likely take considerable time, given the challenges of navigating Android's permission restrictions.

Naturally, some may wonder about data security. Here, another advantage of native systems lies in their inherent security. HarmonyOS NEXT's self-developed StarShield security architecture upgrades traditional Android's management permissions logic to one that manages data, securely storing all data within the system and restricting external app access. It even enables user-to-user encrypted transmission and retrieval through Huawei's user experience, giving users complete control over their data and eliminating the frustration of software functionality restrictions due to unauthorized access.

In terms of security, HarmonyOS is the first and currently only operating system kernel in the industry to pass the international CCEAL6+ certification. Overall, the HarmonyOS operating system has also passed the CCRC EAL5+ certification, an achievement exclusive to self-developed systems like HarmonyOS NEXT.

Ushering in a new era of intelligence

The original intention behind HarmonyOS NEXT's development was to prepare for the era of the Internet of Everything. This endows HarmonyOS NEXT with a crucial characteristic from its inception: develop once, deploy across multiple terminals. This reduces developers' workload and ensures consistent experiences across different devices, eliminating the need for platform-specific interfaces, interactions, or even functionalities. This consistency fosters seamless interconnection, allowing e-books and movies started on a phone to sync and continue on a tablet seamlessly.

Data sharing between users is also swift and efficient, as Huawei users have likely experienced. Now, it even supports high-speed, one-to-many large file sharing, maximizing communication capabilities. This connectivity and consistent experience make the Internet of Everything a seamless and intuitive experience. Smart devices are constantly connected and interact effortlessly, eliminating the need for traditional smart hardware, which often requires installing various apps on a phone for control.

Regarding this, the head of the HarmonyOS team summarized that building HarmonyOS is not merely about replacing Android or IOS but rather about achieving advancements. This necessitates architectural innovation. While previous systems were built for individual devices, HarmonyOS is the first in the industry to create a system that caters to different terminal devices, transcending the boundaries of phone, tablet, and PC ecosystems to share a common HarmonyOS ecosystem. This is something Apple, Google, and Microsoft have attempted but failed to achieve. Furthermore, HarmonyOS excels in vertical integration across hardware, software, chips, and cloud services, delivering unparalleled performance. This contrasts sharply with the conventional approach where systems, applications, chips, and clouds are developed and adapted by different vendors, leading to significant efficiency gains.

In essence, these innovations position HarmonyOS NEXT as the intelligent system of the next era. Its fully self-developed and independent nature represents the independence and rise of China's tech industry, carrying significant practical and symbolic weight. However, building an ecosystem takes time. While HarmonyOS has already adapted over 10,000 native apps and atomic services, fulfilling 99% of user needs, more software adaptations are underway.

Importantly, the HarmonyOS ecosystem is not solely Huawei's responsibility but a shared endeavor of China's tech industry. Only when developers, enterprises, and even consumers from various industries participate in its construction can we truly forge a competitive, independent Chinese system ecosystem. This will foster independent technological development, break technological and non-technological constraints, and usher in a truly interconnected intelligent era.

As the beta version of HarmonyOS is now available, enthusiastic beta testers can experience the charm of this new system and platform. If you encounter any imperfections, please share your feedback on the "My Huawei" app to contribute to the growth of the HarmonyOS ecosystem and foster a culture of sharing and co-creation. It is believed that in the near future, HarmonyOS will emerge as a global benchmark and leader in intelligent ecosystem construction.