User interface The HarmonyOS interface is overhauled with native HarmonyOS Design system as "Harmonious aesthetics" philosophy by Yang Zhiyan, Chief UX Designer at Huawei Consumer BG or the native launcher system that has an emphasis on 'vivid' system colours and reflective 'spatial' visual of light, blur, glow with glassmorphism and
neumorphism soft UI that is a medium between
skeuomorphism and
flat design. In addition to standard folders that require tapping on them to display their contents, folders can be enlarged to always show their contents without text labels directly on the home screen. Apps can support "snippets", which expose a portion of the app's functionality (such as a media player's controls, or a weather forecast) via an iOS style pop-up window by swiping left after holding the app icon in context menu, and can be pinned to the home screen as a
widget. Apps and services can provide
cards; as of HarmonyOS 3.0, cards can also be displayed as widgets with different sizes and shapes to adapt to the home screen layout, and can also be stacked. The user interface font of HarmonyOS on HarmonyOS Next base is HarmonyOS Sans. It is designed to be easy to read, unique, and universal. The system font was used throughout the operating system alongside previous Android-based EMUI 12 and up, including third-party HarmonyOS and former Android apps.
Applications Devices come with applications preinstalled. Further apps can be downloaded from the Huawei App Gallery. From HarmonyOS 1 to 4, the OS was heavily based on Android. This allowed the vast majority of Android apps to be used. Since the introduction of HarmonyOS 5 and further versions such as HarmonyOS 6, only native apps are available. As of March 2026, there were over 350,000 apps available.
Software Traditional apps Unlike Atomic Services that are installation-free, traditional apps need installation. They are available to users through
Huawei AppGallery, which serves as the
application store for HarmonyOS with HarmonyOS-native apps. HarmonyOS-native apps have access to capabilities such as distributed communications and cards.
Atomic Services Managed and distributed by Huawei Ability Gallery, Meta Services (also known as, Atomic Services) replaces legacy HarmonyOS 4.x JS rpk file format Quick Apps are lightweight and consist of one or more
HarmonyOS Ability Packages (HAPs) to implement specific convenient services, providing users with dynamic content and functionality. Atomic Services are installation-free since the accompanying code is downloaded in the background. They can also be synchronized across multiple devices, such as updating the driver's location on the watch in real time after the user hails a taxi on the mobile phone.
Service Collaboration Kit The Service Collaboration Kit (SCK) provides users with cross-device interaction, allowing them to use the camera, scanning, and gallery functions of other devices. For example,
tablets or
2-in-1 laptops can utilize these features from a connected smartphone. To utilize these features, both devices running HarmonyOS NEXT must be logged into the same Huawei account and have WLAN and Bluetooth enabled.
Harmony Intelligence Harmony Intelligence allows users to deploy AI-based applications on HarmonyOS, using
PanGu 5.0
LLM and its embedded variants, alongside new
Celia capabilities, HiAI Foundation Kit,
MindSpore Lite Kit, Neural Network Runtime Kit, and Computer Vision. These features improve performance, reduce power consumption, and enable efficient AI processing on devices with Kirin chips.
Compatibility layer utility apps HarmonyOS 5 native utility compatibility applications supported and co-developed by Chinese software partners with Huawei controlled compatibility environment such as EasyAbroad for Chinese travellers abroad and DroiTong enable Android apps to run in emulation inside a separate container which is introduced since HarmonyOS NEXT/5.x+ versions no longer natively support
Android framework with
APKs built from
LXC and Huawei's iSula/iSulad
openEuler containerised technology engines respectively integrated with LXC ABI shim interacting with HongMeng Kernel's
Linux ABI/API shim module as
binary compatible. The compatibility utility apps includes cloud data syncing support that enables Android app migration into the Android container utility apps from heavily modified
Android 12-
13 HarmonyOS 4.x/
EMUI system container image tied to Huawei account. Apps downloaded via DroiTong and EasyAbroad are automatically placed into a dedicated folder on the home screen. Since HarmonyOS 6.0.0.115 build, they both can now have applications outside of the folder coexisting with native applications on the home screen and on the application center which is the system's app launcher since HarmonyOS 6.0.0.112 semi-beta and stable build. The compatibility layer utility apps are listed on AppGallery and once they become officially native on the HarmonyOS Next iterations of the HarmonyOS 5.x+ platform, the APK is automatically removed. Unlike previous versions of HarmonyOS, Android applications are no longer compatible and cannot be downloaded from the store. Large numbers of western apps are therefore not available natively. Yet, applications such as Easy Abroad and DroiTong do allow Android apps to run in emulation inside a separate container. Apps downloaded via DroiTong are automatically placed into a dedicated folder on the home screen. This includes leading apps such as Amazon, ChatGPT, Facebook, Netflix, YouTube. While these apps work, there are issues present with missed notifications, lower resolution, and file transfers in and out of the container. Apps not present include major banking apps, most streaming services, alternative mapping solutions such as Waze as well as some Google services such as Google Assistant and Gemini. Most major Chinese apps are also available, but most Chinese games are still missing. that enables users to run
Windows 11 ARM in a virtual environment on Huawei MateBook PCs and MatePad Edge. HiSH, Harmonix, Termony third-party console applications by open source HarmonyOS developer community based on harmony-qemu FOSS project built for pure single framework
OpenHarmony-based HarmonyOS platform that supports
QEMU virtualization adaptations natively that can enable users to run full
Linux console applications and commands alongside the integration of HarmonyOS computer's default HiShell system terminal.
HarmonyOS computer system HiShell system terminal HiShell system terminal built on HarmonyOS PC system is based on the OpenHarmony kernel which supports commonly used debugging commands with platform native commands. Commands can be added and customized to the shell of the OpenHarmony kernel. A thin Linux-ish layer is also created for some replicated Linux-style commands out of the box from OpenHarmony's supported reimplementation of third-party
Toybox command line and
musl to provide POSIX like functionalities as a compatibility layer with
HongMeng kernel Linux API/ABI module for developers. However, the shell functions does not comply with the
POSIX compliance standards and are used only for debugging. Since HarmonyOS 6, HiShell can be used without Developer option system settings. Huawei launched the Converged Development Engine, also known as Fusion Development Engine, a lightweight virtualization tool available on AppGallery for HarmonyOS 6.1 computers based on StratoVirt. It allows developers to run Linux-based
openEuler server operating system environment directly on HarmonyOS PCs with a one‑click startup, supporting most Linux-based command‑line tools,
TUI applications, and services integrated with native HiShell openEuler CLI terminal feature that can be used alongside to run with native apps such as CodeArts IDE,
RDP clients as host and browsers with
noVNC web client or
localhost as well as Android containerized environments with DroiTong and EasyAbroad utility apps. The engine includes a shared folder for data exchange, snapshot backup to prevent data loss, and disk expansion to avoid storage bottlenecks.
CodeArts Huawei CodeArts IDE is a cloud computing–based lightweight web IDE that enables users to access the environment using a browser to complete coding, build and debugging functionality for
Python and
Java development as well as enterprise
Android app development. The program can be downloaded from the AppGallery.
DevEco Studio Huawei DevEco Studio is the official native integrated development environment to create native HarmonyOS universal
HAP applications on PC system of HarmonyOS 6 accessed via AppGallery. Third-party native applications built on the official native IDE can be distributed via
AppGallery app store with Huawei developer ID account. The IDE provides a suite of tools for HarmonyOS app development, including cross-platform ArkUI-X framework for
Android,
iOS and
Web development, that includes real-time UI previews, ARM-based emulator, debugging, performance profiling, and flexible build options with
ArkCompiler high level programming languages like
ArkTS and
Cangjie as well as BiSheng for native C/C++ codes on the native toolchain.
Super Device HarmonyOS supports cross-platform interactions between supported devices via the "Super Device" interface; devices are paired via a "radar" screen by dragging icons to the centre of the screen. Examples of Super Device features include allowing users to play back media saved inside a smartphone through a paired PC,
smart TV or
speakers; share PC screen recordings back to a smartphone; run multiple phone apps in a PC window; share files between a paired smartphone and PC; share application states between the paired devices, etc.
NearLink Incorporated into HarmonyOS 4,
NearLink (previously known as SparkLink) is a set of standards that combine the strengths of traditional
wireless technologies like
Bluetooth and
Wi-Fi, while emphasizing improved performance in areas like response time, energy efficiency, signal range, and security. It consists of two access modes: SparkLink Low Energy (SLE) and SparkLink Basic (SLB). SLE is designed for low-power consumption, low-latency, and high-reliability applications, with a data transmission rate reportedly up to 6 times that of Bluetooth; SLB is tailored for high-speed, high-capacity, and high-precision applications, with a data transmission rate reportedly around 2 times that of Wi-Fi.
File system The file system reportedly employs a combining distributed file storage for the distributed file system called Harmony Distributed File System (HMDFS), local storage and integrated cloud storage services, presenting a single, streamlined space to the user. This design is intended to reduce complexity and improve ease of use. HarmonyOS PC system perform continuous, automated background optimization and clean-up of temporary or redundant files and faster boot times compared to the competition. Huawei has stated this integrated functionality aims to eliminate the user's need for third-party system optimization or disk acceleration tools without the need for
defragmentation. Also, it has a built-in
anti-virus scanner on Files application for PC system on HarmonyOS 6. The operating system utilize the
EROFS (Enhanced Read-Only File System) for critical system partitions. It is claimed to have significant performance and efficiency gains over the Linux-standard EXT4 file system, including read performance, space saving of approximately 1.6GB on system files due to its high-performance compression. The file manager is designed with a simplified, card-based interface reminiscent of modern
Windows 11, Android and classic HarmonyOS 4.x tablets on PC side alongside mobile side, prioritizing quick access and clear visual management of files for ease of use when operating. It also features 'Network Neighbor' functionality, which supports access to shared files of other devices in the LAN network such as other computers and
NAS storage devices etc. on HarmonyOS 5.0.1 PC system side post launch. The feature has been expanded to the tablet system side on HarmonyOS 6. == Hardware ==