What you need to know About Hongmeng OS

Hongmeng OS (Chinese: 鸿蒙OS; pinyin: Hóngméng OS), alternatively Ark OS, is an Android-app compatible operating system under development by Huawei since 2012 towards their future products. To date and despite speculation, the company has not yet publicly designated an official name on the release of the operating system.

In a published newspaper interview with Die Welt, Huawei executive Richard Yu stated that such an Operating System (OS) could be used as a Plan B if it were prevented from using Android or Windows as the result of U.S. restrictions, but that he would "prefer to work with the ecosystems of Google and Microsoft". Huawei, since June 2019, has been treating EMUI as an operating system, sparking rumours about Hongmeng OS' final naming. Some media outlets claim Hongmeng OS could be released in China in either August or September 2019 with a worldwide release in the second quarter of 2020.

It is not known whether or not Hongmeng OS will be based on AOSP(Android Open Source Project). However, international trade lawyer Kevin Wolf explained that Huawei would not be allowed to use AOSP, since a considerable part of AOSP is made by Google, which is a US company, and thus, AOSP is subject to US trade regulations.

We don’t have a whole lot of details, but HongMeng OS is supposed to be in the trial phase and may replace Android in future Huawei handsets. Some Chinese sources report the OS has been developed for a while (Google translation):

“A professor led the Huawei operating system team to develop a proprietary operating system – Hongmeng. The operating system has been optimized for Linux (open source), and has been used in Huawei mobile phones (safety part). In addition, the project also won the first prize of the Ministry of Education Technology Invention (2018), the second prize of the National Technology Progress (2012), and strive for csranking as soon as possible before entering V. Prepare to declare the 2020 National Technology Progress Award.”

Brand naming

On 24 May 2019, Huawei registered “Hongmeng OS” as a patented trademark in China for active validity until 13 May 2029. That same day, Huawei registered the following trademarks with the European Union Intellectual Property Office and in the respective offices of member states:

• Huawei Ark OS
• Huawei Ark
• Ark
• Ark OS

It has been reported that Hongmeng OS will be called as such in China while being called Ark OS elsewhere. Some media outlets have reported the version outside China will be called Oak OS, but it is possibly a mispronunciation of Ark OS as Huawei has registered the trademark as Ark OS.