Huawei’s HarmonyOS 7 Unveils a New Era as Apple Stays Out of China
Four days after Apple announced that Siri AI would not launch in China, Huawei stepped into the spotlight in Dongguan, unveiling HarmonyOS 7 and proclaiming it the start of the “agent era.” This strategic move fills the gap that Apple has left open, bringing a new architecture that caters specifically to the Chinese market.
What HarmonyOS 7 Actually Changes
At the core of HarmonyOS 7’s updates is the Intelligent Agent Framework 2.0, which revolves around an “intent-as-service” model. This innovative approach condenses what previously required navigating multiple apps into a single, easy-to-use natural language command.
The spotlight shines on Xiaoyi, Huawei’s AI assistant, which has evolved from a standard voice tool into a powerful system-level intelligence agent. Xiaoyi now boasts control over more than 2,100 system-level capabilities and works in tandem with over 2,000 third-party AI agents developed within Huawei’s ecosystem.
Richard Yu, chairman of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group, described the launch as a critical inflection point: “In 2019, HarmonyOS was born. In 2023, native HarmonyOS apps began. By 2026, HarmonyOS will enter the Agent era.”
Underpinning this update is openPangu 2.0, Huawei’s enhanced foundation model featuring 505 billion parameters in its Pro version and 92 billion in the Flash variant, offering robust performance with a context window of 512K. HarmonyOS 7 also promises a more than 15% performance boost over HarmonyOS 6.1, based on Huawei’s internal benchmarks—though these figures have yet to undergo independent verification.
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The Market Position is Consolidating
The latest data shared at the Huawei Developer Conference (HDC) reveals a pivotal shift in the smartphone OS landscape. As of Q1 2026, HarmonyOS commanded a 19% share of the Chinese smartphone OS market, exceeding Apple’s iOS, which stood at 16%, while Android accounted for the remaining 65%. HarmonyOS’s market share overtook iOS for the first time in Q2 2025, according to research from Counterpoint.
This trajectory is more significant than any single feature, especially considering that China is the very market where Apple faces restrictions while Huawei has optimized its offerings. The agent network coordinated by Xiaoyi includes key partnerships, such as those with Ctrip for travel planning and Ant Medical for health data analytics—services that are seamlessly integrated into the local consumer stack, which Apple’s architecture cannot penetrate.
Where the Limits Are
Despite its ambitious features, the challenge to Apple from HarmonyOS needs to be framed correctly. Currently, HarmonyOS 7 is in its developer beta phase, with a stable consumer release expected this autumn. While the platform boasts over 2,000 AI agents anchored in the Chinese app ecosystem, it still offers only about 400,000 applications and services—a fraction compared to the extensive offerings in Apple’s App Store.
Additionally, Huawei’s goal of taking HarmonyOS international appears aspirational for now. A notable design choice softening any clear divergence from Apple is the adoption of the Liquid Glass aesthetic, a visual style reminiscent of what Apple introduced with iOS 26 and what Samsung brought to One UI 9. Despite differences in architecture and regulatory issues, visual languages continue to converge.
The Longer Arc
Huawei’s development of HarmonyOS can be traced back to necessity; following US sanctions, which cut off Huawei’s access to Google’s Android in 2019, the company shifted gears to create its own operating system. By January 2026, over 90% of Huawei devices were running this fully homegrown system. This forced independence has now provided a structural advantage in a market where Apple is unable to deploy its leading AI features.
The sanctions that incited Huawei’s platform development also cleared the path for its growth, allowing it to cater uniquely to the Chinese consumer landscape, which remains closed off to outsiders like Apple.
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