Harmony's WeChat Hopes To Break Android And iOS Dominance in China

Tencent Holdings' super app WeChat was officially launched on HarmonyOS Next recently in China. This gives Huawei Technologies a vital ally, as it expands the reach of the home-grown mobile operating system and Android replacement.

The HarmonyOS version of WeChat has been available for download since 8 January, three months after Tencent began beta testing the app. The latest version supports key WeChat functions such as payments, short videos, live streaming and mini programs, in addition to messaging, audio and video calls, and social media page Moments - functions that already existed in the beta version.

With 1.38 billion monthly active users, WeChat has become a must-have digital tool for mainland Chinese users, making it indispensable for Huawei's goal to break the dominance of Google's Android and Apple's iOS in its home market.

Tencent last March 2024 assigned an experienced team to lead the development of WeChat's HarmonyOS version, the company said recently. The team has been in charge of building various versions of WeChat through the years, including for Nokia's Symbian mobile operating system.

Huawei has been rebuilding its consumer device business after U.S. sanctions decimated sales of its smartphones. Barred from accessing US-origin technologies, the Chinese tech giant has doubled down on efforts to reduce reliance on both foreign software and hardware.

Its Mate 70 flagship smartphones, which were unveiled in November and feature an in-house designed processor, employ HarmonyOS Next, the latest iteration of the Huawei platform that no longer supports Android apps.

The Shenzhen-based company has set a 2025 target for all of its smartphones and tablets to run on HarmonyOS Next.

Besides WeChat, Huawei also brought in other major Chinese apps, including TikTok's Chinese sibling Douyin and Alipay from Ant Group, a financial technology affiliate of South China Morning Post owner Alibaba Group Holding.

The HarmonyOS Next ecosystem, with over 15,000 native apps and services as of October, was "basically usable", Huawei's rotating chairman Eric Xu Zhijun said in November. The company expects the operating system to reach "maturity" by achieving 100,000 apps in the next six months to a year, he added.