Huawei's HarmonyOS 6 Pushes Toward System-Level AI as Smartphone Race Shifts...

Ever since OpenAI’s ChatGPT ignited a global frenzy for generative AI, companies from Silicon Valley to Shenzhen have scrambled to weave intelligence into every layer of their product strategy.

Nearly every major sector now promises that artificial intelligence will redefine daily life, and consumer electronics have become the most visible battleground. Yet, for most users, the transformation still feels incremental. Even Apple’s “Apple Intelligence,” now in its second year, has not fundamentally reshaped how iPhones work at the system level.

Huawei Technologies Co. believes it is closer to delivering that shift. With HarmonyOS 6, the Chinese tech giant is introducing what it describes as true system-level AI integration, positioning its home-grown operating system as the center of an intelligent ecosystem that can operate without reliance on the United States. The company is attempting to turn AI into the primary interface for how people interact with their devices, replacing app-by-app interactions with one unified conversation.

At the center of this upgrade is Xiaoyi, an intelligent agent that now serves as the single entry point into AI services on Huawei phones, tablets, and PCs. HarmonyOS 6 allows Xiaoyi to coordinate across apps without users needing to open them individually.

A health inquiry, for example, no longer requires searching symptoms, selecting a hospital, and navigating a maze of appointment screens. Instead, a user can simply say, “My blood pressure has been fluctuating lately. Please check which department I should register with through Alipay Health Manager,” and Xiaoyi will pass the request directly to the medical AI system built by Ant Group, present relevant specialists, and schedule an appointment.

This capability is driven by the new Harmony Agent Framework, or HMAF, which Huawei describes as a unified architecture that allows intelligent agents from third-party developers to communicate securely and efficiently with the operating system and with one another. The framework establishes shared rules and services for task execution, data exchange, and intent understanding. Huawei argues that once apps speak the same “AI language,” intelligence becomes seamless rather than fragmented.

The rollout is already underway. More than 80 service agents are live in the Xiaoyi Agent Center, covering planning, shopping, dining, entertainment, medical care, and travel. Huawei says user demand, not system favoritism, determines which agent processes a request, a mechanism meant to encourage developer participation at a time when the company is rebuilding an independent ecosystem.

HarmonyOS 6 also refreshes its system apps with native intelligence that Huawei claims Apple and Google cannot easily replicate. In the Gallery app, a casual photo can be turned into a portrait with professional lighting and depth-of-field effects. Users can request changes through natural language—such as asking Xiaoyi to swap backgrounds, soften lighting, or add props—and iterate until the result meets personal taste.

On Huawei PCs, intelligent document management enables local sorting, tagging, and automatic updates as new files are added, while a new quick-note feature allows articles and web content to be captured on the fly. Summaries are then generated automatically using on-device analysis.

Xiaoyi’s speech recognition is also expanding. Huawei says the assistant will understand 16 dialects by the end of the year and display responses accordingly, particularly targeting the vast user base outside standard Mandarin-speaking regions.

A flagship feature called Xiaoyi Deep Research positions the assistant as a rapid analyst capable of consolidating information from uploaded documents, online sources, and professional knowledge bases. Huawei says the system can generate detailed reports, business strategies, presentations, and formatted research documents within minutes, relying primarily on local processing for speed and privacy.

Huawei’s pitch is that hardware-software integration gives it a structural advantage over competitors, especially in a world increasingly sensitive to data protection and geopolitical risk. By controlling its own chips, operating system, and cloud services, Huawei says HarmonyOS can execute complex AI tasks faster and more securely than platforms dependent on remote computing. The ambition is not simply to compete with Android and iOS, but to surpass them in areas where design decisions made years ago now limit deeper integration.

Still, the success of an operating system is determined as much by the ecosystem around it as by its engineering. Two years ago, HarmonyOS faced questions about whether users could access the apps they relied on daily. Huawei contends that the environment has changed significantly. Tencent’s full suite of essential apps now supports HarmonyOS, including WeChat, which has been rolling out substantial monthly updates.

Amap, or Gaode Map, has already brought its latest AI-enhanced navigation features to the platform. Taobao has introduced price previews and subsidy notifications tailored to HarmonyOS. Alipay has expanded financial service tools. Douyin has strengthened livestreaming and location-based content offerings, while Meituan has improved the flow of discount coupons and promotions. JD.com has added advanced augmented-reality shopping previews. Tencent Maps is launching real-time traffic-light countdowns, and Umetrip now includes dynamic weather alerts tuned to flight plans. Huawei’s argument is that these improvements push major apps to around 80 percent functional completeness compared with their Android versions, up from roughly 50 percent during the HarmonyOS 5 lifecycle.

HarmonyOS’s Tap-to-Connect feature, a key part of Huawei’s “better together” narrative, is also expanding. With more than 60 apps participating, users can share images, launch games, transfer videos, and hand off tasks between phones and laptops through a simple tap. Huawei expects this cross-device model to be a defining characteristic of its ecosystem in homes, offices, and vehicles.

The numbers behind HarmonyOS show accelerating adoption. Richard Yu, head of Huawei’s consumer business, says devices running HarmonyOS 5 and later have exceeded 23 million units, calling it the fastest-growing operating system in the history of smart devices. The trajectory is steep: zero to 10 million units took eight months; moving from 10 million to 20 million required just over two. The trend reflects both a domestic consumer shift away from U.S.-linked platforms and the rebound of Huawei’s high-end smartphone sales since the debut of its new Kirin-powered flagships.

As the company regains share at the premium tier, analysts see the broader strategy unfolding: Huawei is pushing developers to view HarmonyOS not as a secondary adaptation but as a primary platform where new features and business opportunities emerge first. The firm wants to make intelligence not just a differentiator but a necessity, putting pressure on rivals to redesign their own architectures if they want to keep pace.

For now, the company remains focused on demonstrating practical benefits to consumers. Huawei executives say HarmonyOS 5 proved that the system could support essential functions. HarmonyOS 6, they argue, must prove that intelligence can meaningfully improve everyday experience. The hope is that AI interactions which are fast, conversational, and secure will gradually shift user habits away from app-by-app management and toward a worldview where the operating system simply understands what needs to be done.

The next stage — whether Huawei can turn that vision into durable loyalty and a thriving developer economy — will determine whether HarmonyOS becomes a genuine third ecosystem in global smartphones. If it succeeds, the competitive landscape may be defined less by hardware specifications or app counts and more by how deeply intelligence is embedded into the digital environment. Huawei is betting that the future of mobile computing is not about where you tap, but about what you say — and how well your device responds.