The "Shared Diary" of 20 million HarmonyOS terminals: When digital technology meets real-world scenarios

On September 29, Yu Chengdong, Executive Director of Huawei and Chairman of the Consumer Business Group, announced in a short video that the number of terminals using HarmonyOS 5 had exceeded 20 million.

"It took us nearly 10 months to reach 10 million from scratch. However, it only took us a mere two months to grow from 10 million to 20 million," he said.

There is a lot behind this statement. HarmonyOS 5 started its upgrade process last October, and the number of terminals reached 10 million in July this year. Just two months later, this figure has doubled. This is an accelerating upward growth curve. HarmonyOS has emerged from the lowest point of the "smile" curve and entered a new stage of accelerated growth.

Behind the leap in the number of HarmonyOS 5 terminals lies an inflection point for an ecosystem. It marks the progress of HarmonyOS from being "usable" to being "user - friendly" and from single - point adaptation to multi - party co - creation. In other words, an operating system truly undergoes a system - level transformation when its presence is no longer confined to the technology circle or manufacturers' press conferences but is deeply integrated into daily usage habits.

"One tree does not make a forest." Compared with the self - breakthrough of a single system manufacturer, HarmonyOS has evolved into a symbiotic experiment for the entire industrial chain. On the basis of proving that "a system can be developed", its value lies in enabling tens of thousands of applications, enterprises, and users to find a deeper symbiotic meaning within the same ecosystem.

HarmonyOS Grows Rapidly, Rooted in the Details of Life

The journey of HarmonyOS out of the smile curve reflects the acceleration generated by the deep integration of system performance and a vast user scenario. The essence of the abstract numbers comes from a large number of concrete daily activities: self - driving trips, travel photography, dining, and entertainment... As the National Day approaches, with its system function advantages, HarmonyOS provides more interesting ways of interaction.

HarmonyOS is blurring the boundaries between devices, making the experience of technology in daily life more seamless. Navigation, music, and calls can be naturally connected between mobile phones and in - car infotainment systems, allowing drivers to focus on the road. Laptops, tablets, and mobile phones can share documents and operate collaboratively. Materials in video conferences can be synchronized in real - time, improving the efficiency of office workers. This cross - device collaboration extends to daily life, where experiences such as watching movies and listening to music can follow the user, no longer restricted by a single screen.

Behind this "hassle - free" experience lies a core change in the contemporary user experience. While amazing functions are important, only by transforming complex technologies into an "intuitive and hassle - free" experience through system - level optimization can an operating system deeply shape users' usage habits and gain their long - term trust.

Some users have commented on social media about their experience with HarmonyOS 5. They said that instead of constantly searching for functions, the system now proactively combines and presents what they need.

For users who like overseas travel, when dining, they only need to open the HarmonyOS version of Dianping to directly query the food map, and even complete overseas restaurant reservations, ticket purchases, and entertainment bookings. Instead of being scattered in isolated application islands, HarmonyOS connects these scenarios with its system - level capabilities, forming a natural whole. This is the power of scenario - based implementation.

Therefore, the real daily usage feedback and the gradual formation of users' habits are the sources that nourish the growth of HarmonyOS. This includes not only the innovative experience of daily functions in HarmonyOS but also unique functions based on in - depth insights.

The growth of HarmonyOS 5 is not only about software upgrades but also about continuously taking root in users' lives and continuously optimizing after listening to the suggestions of millions of users. While providing comprehensive services as an operating system, it imprints its value in a more daily - life - oriented way of use.

From this perspective, the current scale of HarmonyOS 5 terminals is not a random number but an inevitable result of users gradually developing habits and the continuous accumulation of ecological feedback. The rapid growth of HarmonyOS comes from its natural integration into real - life scenarios.

From Usable to User - Friendly: Beyond Adaptation, Deep Co - Creation

To some extent, the growth model of HarmonyOS can be described as "companionship". In the early days of promoting HarmonyOS, it may have relied more on Huawei's own hardware shipments and users' patient adaptation. However, after crossing the initial low point, its continuous growth comes more from the joint efforts of the ecosystem.

Currently, there are more than 30,000 applications and meta - services available on the HarmonyOS 5 App Gallery, among which more than 9,000 applications are deeply involved in more than 70 types of system - level innovative experiences. In the government and enterprise sectors, more than 100 office platforms have completed adaptation, covering 38 million enterprises.

These data mark a turning point: Ecosystem partners are no longer just passive followers. They are taking a more proactive stance in co - creation and are the first to launch new functions on HarmonyOS.

The HarmonyOS version of Xiaohongshu has launched the "circle - select image search" function. Users can simply draw a circle on the screen with their finger joints, and it will jump to the corresponding note details. Relying on underlying capabilities such as gesture recognition and Xiaoyi Search in HarmonyOS, it shifts the retrieval from text input to visual trigger, shortening the search logic to almost the same level as intuition.

Weibo launched HDR Vivid ultra - high - definition images on the HarmonyOS version for the first time, bringing the dynamic range and color performance of professional imaging into the daily information stream. When users browse Weibo, they can get a picture quality close to that of a magazine. At the same time, it also promotes the expansion of HDR Vivid from hardware capabilities to the content ecosystem, forming a standard that can be adopted by the industry.

The motivation for leading applications to invest resources in deep co - creation is two - fold. On the one hand, the relatively simple underlying architecture of HarmonyOS reduces the cost of trial and error. The lightweight design of HarmonyOS enables developers to verify new functions more efficiently and complete optimization in a short time. This efficiency advantage allows many ideas to be quickly transformed into real product forms and significantly speeds up the pace of ecological iteration. On the other hand, seizing the opportunity in a rapidly growing new ecosystem means being able to define category rules earlier and accumulate core users.

Ecosystem partners use the technical features and system - level interfaces of HarmonyOS to implement their unique experiences for the first time. These functions show that ecosystem partners are not satisfied with "compatibility" and are regarding HarmonyOS 5 as a fertile ground for innovation and a platform for first - launch experiments.

Many developers have revealed in their development stories that when developing on HarmonyOS, their teams do not simply copy existing functions. Many things that were difficult to achieve on other operating systems can now be realized on HarmonyOS.

For developers, HarmonyOS is an experimental field where they can verify new functions and accumulate new users. Only deep co - creation can fully mobilize their continuous passion and creativity. This "positive feedback" is the driving force for the continuous growth of the ecosystem. At the same time, as the scale of HarmonyOS terminals expands, the user groups that ecosystem partners can reach continue to increase, and the value of co - creation also rises.

Currently, HarmonyOS has established a positive cycle of "feedback - optimization - co - creation" through open interfaces and joint innovation. Users' feedback promotes system optimization, partners' innovation expands the ecological boundaries, and the evolution of the system attracts more users and partners to join.

The influx of long - tail applications is a sign that the ecological soil is becoming fertile. Behind this, users are no longer passive users but promoters; partners are no longer peripheral adapters but co - builders. This gives HarmonyOS's growth model strong vitality.

The HarmonyOS World Turns a New Page: Users, Partners, and the System Reinforce Each Other

When the ecological flywheel starts to accelerate, growth no longer depends on a single driving force. As Metcalfe's Law in the development of network technologies points out, the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of nodes.

In other words, when the scale of HarmonyOS users achieves a significant leap, the possibility of connections will break through from linear growth to exponential expansion.

After the number of terminals exceeded 20 million, the HarmonyOS ecosystem has reached a critical point of network effects. From entertainment to travel, from households to government and enterprises, HarmonyOS is forming a digitally collaborative and evolving space. Users' feedback, partners' investment, and developers' innovation interact with each other in this space, just like different species in the same ecosystem.

Each additional user brings more interactions, and each interaction promotes new experience improvements. These improvements are translated into code - level optimizations through the developer feedback mechanism, making the experience smoother and more stable, and ultimately driving the entire system to iterate and attracting more users and partners to join. This gives HarmonyOS the characteristic of "getting better with use".

HarmonyOS is replicating this effective path. HarmonyOS 5 not only brings optimization of the underlying architecture and enhancement of distributed capabilities but also makes breakthroughs in the types of terminal devices. From Huawei's mobile phones, tablets, and wearables to the in - car cockpits of AITO and JIEJIE, and then to smart home devices, HarmonyOS is weaving a "Internet of Everything" network.

The full - scenario experience will enable users to form a deep symbiotic relationship with HarmonyOS, further enhancing their sense of identity with the ecosystem. At the same time, the investment of developers and partners is amplifying the network effects. Technologically, the popularization of ArkTS (Ark Language) and the improvement of the DevEco Studio toolchain have lowered the threshold for application development, encouraging more small and medium - sized developers to contribute to the HarmonyOS ecosystem.

According to official data, the number of developers related to HarmonyOS has exceeded 8 million. They have not only improved the system experience but also participated in creating the ecological diversity.

At the hardware level, from household appliances to wearables and then to industrial devices, the number of partners in the HarmonyOS ecosystem is expanding rapidly. Just like a rainforest in nature, the more complex it is, the more stable and vibrant it becomes.

HarmonyOS, ecosystem partners, and users form a self - reinforcing cycle, which also echoes the essence of an ecosystem - the value of a digital ecosystem lies not in individual nodes but in the connections between them. The scale of HarmonyOS terminal devices is not only a quantitative breakthrough but also a sign that the ecosystem is moving from individual existence to community growth.

This is the collaborative evolution in the digital age defined by HarmonyOS: Users, enterprises, and developers have merged from independent individuals into an interdependent whole. The growth trajectory of HarmonyOS shows that the evolution of digital systems has long gone beyond technology itself, and the value of an ecosystem lies in symbiosis.

The future growth of the HarmonyOS world will not rely solely on the promotion of a single manufacturer but on the interaction of the entire ecosystem. Every user's usage and every partner's co - creation will ultimately become the root force driving the continuous upward growth curve of HarmonyOS.

As Yu Chengdong said in an interview with CCTV, HarmonyOS hopes to turn everyone's feedback into a wonderful experience. In the growth process of HarmonyOS, user feedback has never been absent. Whether it is criticism, suggestions, or the expectations in the so - called "wish lists", they will all be incorporated into the system iteration. Continuous listening and interaction drive HarmonyOS forward.

This article is from the WeChat official account "36Kr Pro", published by 36Kr with permission.