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At HDC 2024 in June, our old friend Yu Chengdong officially announced that HarmonyOS NEXT could be tested internally, and Tony applied for the upgrade immediately.

To be honest, I have been using this pure blood Hongmeng for a long time ~

As for earlier times, we have also participated in many large and small technical sharing sessions, closed-door meetings, and communication meetings, and have gained a certain understanding of what HarmonyOS NEXT will eventually become.(Those who haven’t understood it yet can read what we wrote before)

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Based on my experience over the past month, I think it’s time to share my experience of using Next Beta with you.

First of all, I have to say that there are indeed bugs in the current HarmonyOS NEXT. After all, it is a Beta version. One of its important purposes is to allow everyone to test, discover problems, and provide suggestions.

But Huawei fixes bugs very quickly. In just two months, HarmonyOS NEXT has released three major version updates. . .

And the most amazing episode happened to me - a friend of mine also participated in the "Pioneer Experiencer" program, and then in Beta 2, his Mate X5 encountered Bluetooth delay problems.

As a result, he received the Beta3 update the next day after he gave the feedback, and the Bluetooth delay problem was solved.

No, Hongmeng, if there is a problem, you really have to fix it!

So if there are pioneer testers among the friends who are reading this article, please don’t complain when you encounter a bug. Instead, give feedback and suggestions directly. It will probably be resolved soon.

Ordinary users can look forward to it first. I heard that Huawei will open larger-scale upgrades to consumers in the future. It will not be too late to apply for an experience then. Now you can take a look at our experience report to satisfy your curiosity.

Okay, let's start our article.

Unlike some of the testers who have already used the system and are "finding differences" every day, the majority of the public is more concerned about how the system works. What will it mean when the concepts of "native intelligence", "native security" and "full scenario" mentioned at the previous press conference are really implemented on mobile phones?

Last time after visiting HDC and sharing with you the "native security" of pure-blooded Hongmeng, many friends came to ask me, what exactly is "data management"?

Let me use my actual experience in the past two months to illustrate.

In the past, when we took photos or scanned codes in third-party apps such as Alipay and Xiaohongshu, a pop-up window would appear for the first time asking us "Do you allow the app to use the camera?"

But on HarmonyOS NEXT, when we click to shoot in a third-party app, a pop-up window prompt is as follows:

This is not as simple as changing the prompt words, but the entire security control logic has changed.

Previously, third-party applications asked the system for camera permissions. As long as the user clicked to agree, the third-party applications could directly access the camera.

As for what the third-party applications are recording and whether they are secretly recording user privacy when using the camera, we don’t know.

After upgrading to HarmonyOS NEXT, if third-party applications want to use the camera, they can only apply to the system, and the system will call the built-in camera application to complete it. Third-party applications can only wait until the built-in camera finishes taking pictures and then transfer the pictures to it. During the whole process, it cannot see what your camera is taking.

The same idea applies to third-party code scanning. Apps can only get the final scanning results returned by the Huawei camera.

Anyway, the goal is to make the application take less data that it shouldn’t take.

This is “managing data”. In plain words, it means: “The application wants something, right? OK, just stand there and wait for my people to give it to you. Don’t mess around!”

In this way, third-party applications can only obtain data provided by the system. Isn't this much safer than opening all permissions at once?

In addition to safety, another issue that was asked a lot was Xiaoyi.Oh, by the way, now he has been upgraded to Xiaoyi intelligent body.

Previously, we demonstrated in detail what Xiaoyi Smart Body can do at the HDC booth. Careful friends found that the operation did not seem like using a voice assistant.

Because Hongmeng has moved Xiaoyi to a new place this time, putting it in the small horizontal bar at the bottom. Users can not only press and hold the small horizontal bar to call up Xiaoyi, but also directly drag and drop received documents and pictures to Xiaoyi, allowing it to generate summaries and tables, making it easier for users to quickly obtain information.

Another question that everyone is concerned about is how Huawei’s traditional strength, “full-scenario interconnection”, is doing this time?

It just so happens that I also got the HarmonyOS NEXT system on my tablet, so I will show you whether what Mr. Yu said before, “one system, one ecosystem”, is a bluff.

Everyone should be familiar with the fact that the memo and clipboard system apps can relay across devices. But can such a useful relay interconnection also support third-party apps?

Guess what, as a pure-blooded HarmonyOS advance version, HarmonyOS NEXT Beta was actually made!

When editing documents with the Hongmeng native version of WPS, you can not only copy text on your phone, but also paste it on your tablet.

Even pictures on your phone can be directly selected on the tablet and inserted into the document. Yes, there is no need to transfer them back and forth, nor to open the document on the phone to insert them. It is so convenient.

God knows how relieved a laborer like me is to see such an update. From now on, when I'm out and about and meet someone who gives bad reviews and asks me to help him make a PPT, I won't have to go through the trouble of sending texts and pictures back and forth.

In addition, some other interconnected functions that we have seen on HDC, such as the ability to seamlessly transfer a half-edited dynamic on the phone to the tablet for further editing, etc., are all available in HarmonyOS NEXT this time. I have tried them all and found that the operation is very smooth and silky.

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So, I would like to ask, when will you give me a raise? I am waiting to buy the Huawei family package with the official version of HarmonyOS NEXT in September.

In addition to the functions and experiences that Hongmeng has discussed before and are very useful, I also found some changes that were not mentioned in HDC before.

The biggest change may be the built-in software of the system. This time, from music, video, reading, to theme store and app store, the UI interface has been redesigned by Hongmeng.

The general idea of ​​the design is to collect many trivial functions into large cards to reduce the difficulty of use for users.

Although the interface has become simpler, the hard work behind it is not less. Take music, which is rarely used, for example. Other manufacturers hardly pay much attention to the development of their own music apps.

However, Huawei Music has its own music library and song copyrights in its own hands. In addition, Huawei has also developed its own True Spatial Audio format and L2HC high-definition audio encoding. When paired with Huawei headphones that support the Star Flash feature, it is the only mobile phone manufacturer that has truly opened up the entire music playback link.

So if you haven’t used Huawei Music before, you can really try it out after updating to HarmonyOS NEXT~

While experiencing these built-in applications, I also discovered another small detail: the UI of HarmonyOS NEXT Beta is really smooth.

At first I thought it was my hallucination, so I asked the post-production team to shoot it specially. The animation speed of HarmonyOS NEXT Beta in slow motion is slower than that of HarmonyOS 4.2. It should feel more stuck, so how come it is smoother?

HarmonyOS 4.2 on the left, HarmonyOS NEXT Beta on the right

It wasn’t until I made further comparisons with my photography colleagues that I discovered the real reason - although the animation on NEXT was slower, it added more details.

Swiping up from the bottom to call out the background and swiping right to enter the negative one screen both add a blur and desktop sinking effect. If you look closely, it looks like the desktop is moving away from you, which is more in line with the human eye's intuition than before.

HarmonyOS 4.2 on the left, HarmonyOS NEXT Beta on the right

Even when closing an app in the background, the page turning animation is blurred. In order to achieve smoothness, previous versions of Hongmeng accelerated the animation, while NEXT adds more details to make the operation animation more intuitive to the human eye.

After talking about so many changes in functions and experience, I guess everyone can't wait to see what the HarmonyOS NEXT application ecosystem is like? In other words, how many applications can be used on this new system now?

I specifically went to the App Store to check for everyone, and found that Alipay, Meituan, Amap... basically all the software that everyone uses in daily life is there.

And I unexpectedly discovered that there is a section called Business in the App Store. After clicking in, in addition to well-known applications such as WPS Office, Tianyancha, and Zhaopin, there are also many software that we have never heard of.

When I clicked on it, I found out that this was an internal application of someone else's company.

I tried to install it and it installed successfully, but when I entered the login interface, it either prompted that the user did not exist or that registration was not yet open, confirming that this was indeed software exclusively for corporate employees.

HarmonyOS NEXT has a lot more software like this.

As a brand-new system, it can support more internal enterprise applications, which is very important for the promotion and dissemination of HarmonyOS NEXT.

For example, if I work for a company and need to use an internal chat software, if HarmonyOS NEXT is not compatible with this software, then my colleagues and I certainly cannot risk losing our jobs by upgrading to HarmonyOS NEXT.

The fact that we can see so many enterprise applications in the app store also shows that Hongmeng has long been aware of this problem, so they are also trying to mobilize everyone's enthusiasm for developing Hongmeng applications.

On the other hand, for enterprises, actively connecting to Hongmeng is also a trend-setting and beneficial thing to do.

Hasn't the country been advocating autonomous control in the past two years? In this regard, Hongmeng is definitely more advantageous.

When developing internal enterprise applications on other platforms, one often faces a problem: the processor is from Qualcomm or MediaTek, the system is based on Android, and the application is made by oneself.

Information security issues may arise in every link here, and you may not even know who to contact if something happens.

In comparison, Huawei looks much more powerful. It owns everything from hardware to system infrastructure to various application interfaces. At least subjectively, it feels more reliable.

Enterprises are often concerned about the issue of office efficiency, but when it comes to Hongmeng, there is no need to worry about this.

As we all know, the work of companies all over the world is inseparable from meetings, PPTs, and bushi. Hongmeng has a say in all these tasks that involve cross-device operations.

Especially for those companies that have high security requirements and want to pursue efficiency, Hongmeng is indeed a good choice.

A friend of mine who works as a hardware engineer in a certain factory once complained to me that every time he went to a customer site to troubleshoot a problem, he had to take a lot of photos of the site, then upload them to his computer to make a PPT report to his boss. The company's office software doesn't allow PPTs to be made on mobile phones, and the company's regulations forbid using an external network to upload to a computer.

When he is out, he has to be very careful every time he uploads a photo. Before, he used Bluetooth and LAN to solve the problem. Those who have experienced this know how painful it is.

I think if their company is connected to Hongmeng, everything will be much more convenient. Because I really asked the people of Hongmeng, I want to know why they can convince enterprises to build native applications specifically adapted to NEXT, and their answer really hits the actual needs of enterprises.

First of all, Hongmeng's Internet of Everything is not just talk. As we mentioned before, under the premise of security, free switching between different Hongmeng devices and real-time synchronization and modification of files are basic operations.

And there is something I haven’t mentioned before on Hongmeng NEXT, called “system-level file encryption”. If everyone uses the Hongmeng system, it can even achieve access only by designated authorized users, basically eliminating data leakage and illegal access.

Moreover, because Hongmeng NEXT has native AI, it is no problem to integrate advanced functions such as intelligent meeting management, schedule management, and document processing.

In this way, for enterprises, although they have invested manpower and material resources to develop a new app, in fact, it improves the company's file asset security and production efficiency. Maybe because of the development of this app, they may not be used to using Android in the future.

I guess after seeing this, some of you will ask, will it be difficult to find developers to develop such an app now? After all, HarmonyOS has only been proposed for a few years.

I actually had the same doubts, so I checked the data. The data released by Yu Zong at HDC showed that the number of HarmonyOS developers has reached 2.54 million. Wow.

In contrast, last year the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology reported that there were only 580,000 Android and Apple developers in China, and only 240,000 Android developers. There is serious doubt as to whether some developers have already defected to Hongmeng.

Although not all of the 2.54 million Hongmeng developers are full-time, it is not necessarily difficult to find people who can develop. Some schools have even offered relevant courses, and there are now many third-party companies that specialize in Hongmeng application development. . .

Hongmeng has also already developed very mature development infrastructure, including system capabilities, developer tools, frameworks and various libraries required for third-party software development.

This has been fully verified by some leading third-party applications. For example, DingTalk, which is very popular among workers, has started to adapt early with the help of the infrastructure provided by Hongmeng. (狗头)

Hongmeng has even considered how to make the software available to people after it is made. Although many enterprise apps are listed on the app store, you can choose not to list them. As long as you obtain a dedicated internal release certificate, you can help your employees install them yourself.

All the conveniences that Hongmeng can provide, when added together, confirm the words on HDC - "It's the right time to join Hongmeng."

So, my friends who are reading this article, are there any future bosses of Fortune 500 companies? If so, I suggest that you take advantage of the current good policies and quickly find someone to make a native Hongmeng version of the internal application.

Don’t come back and see your boss holding a Huawei flagship equipped with NEXT, and then finds that he can’t even download his own apps. How embarrassing!

If the official commercial version of HarmonyOS NEXT is Hongmeng's "big test", then this Beta version is equivalent to the mock test answer sheet submitted by Hongmeng. It also allows those of us who care about Hongmeng to truly feel the real techniques and problem-solving ideas of Hongmeng, the "academic master".

Although it must be admitted that the current HarmonyOS NEXT Beta still has some shortcomings in some aspects, such as the game adaptation issues that ordinary users are more concerned about, and some functions of some software are still under development.

Tony has been unable to use his NEXT-equipped phone as his primary device because of the incompatibility between WeChat and Feishu.

However, the good news is that when we talked with Huawei's internal developers, they also recognized these shortcomings. In order to successfully commercialize the product in the fourth quarter of this year, their developers have been working overtime to resolve various bugs and adapt more applications.

For example, we boldly speculate that WeChat, which everyone is most concerned about, may not be far away. After all, according to the latest version Tony has on hand, Penguin applications such as Tencent News and Tencent Video have been launched one after another, so WeChat should not be delayed for too long.

And if nothing unexpected happens, it seems that there will be a lot of important software to be launched this month, and everything is under Huazi's control.

If you have the opportunity to try NEXT, I would like to make an appeal on behalf of Huawei, hoping that everyone will report more bugs. With your words and my words, perhaps we can use Hongmeng with a better experience sooner.

All we have to do is wait for the arrival of autumn leaves and see how the commercial version will take the market by storm.

Written by: Shiangedit: Barrier & Milo

Art: Huan Yanphotography: Ruoxuan

Image, source：

Huawei, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology