HarmonyOS Expands Beyond Phones

Huawei’s HarmonyOS-powered new AITO (Wenjie) M9 SUV, confirmed to run the all-new Huawei Tulingo Dragon Drive (途灵龙行) platform, faces an AI controversy after its promotional video released May 16 drew AI-generation flags on short-video platforms. A creator who submitted the clip to China’s anti-fraud center reported AI-generation traces, prompting blogger @AIMIKKKK to publish on-the-ground footage demonstrating the M9’s active suspension and real-world sounds to counter the claims. Huawei’s site lists multiple M9 trims, seating and powertrain options; the top Ultimate long-wheelbase, fully equipped spec nears RMB 900k (about RMB 879,800 listed), and the product launch is set for May 27.

Huawei began rolling out a May OTA for AITO/Wenjie cars that upgrades its QianKun ADS 4 driving stack and HarmonyOS in-cabin system, addressing long-standing user pain points. The ADS 4 update brings city navigation (NCA), LCC Plus lane cruise enhancements, one-tap NCA activation, improved map and routing edits, parking-assist from cruising, VRU reverse warnings, accident-prone road preemptive slowing, and camera view options. HarmonyOS cabin updates add features including no-mic karaoke, richer E-CALL health data, a new steering-wheel volume setting (current volume vs. media/calls), AI-driven video color/quality enhancement, light-to-video mood lighting, AR HUD driving aids and animations, improved voice dialects, and finer dashcam controls. The OTA tightens driver-assist, UX, and multimedia integration across vehicle software.

Huawei’s Hongmeng Zhixing (HarmonyOS for vehicles) began a May OTA rollout delivering 17 new features and 36 experience optimizations across driving assistance and in-cabin functions. Key ADS upgrades to Huawei QianKun driving include improved eAES behavior for safer evasive maneuvers, rear VRU (vulnerable road user) collision warnings during reversing, and a one‑touch navigation-assist activation that recommends destinations and engages NCA/ADS. Cabin updates add editable via-points in route planning, expanded dialect support for voice assistant XiaoYi, and a low-latency vocal-removal karaoke mode. Additional refinements cover passenger seat memory, looser navigation-assist activation conditions, and AR-HUD displays. The OTA is available via the vehicle system update menu.

Huawei announced the MatePad Pro Max flagship tablet will debut alongside the nova 16 series at a June 1 launch event and go on sale the same day at 16:08. The MatePad Pro Max, now listed on Huawei’s site, emphasizes an ultra-thin design, a 13.2-inch 3K flexible OLED "cloud soft light" display with a 94% screen-to-body ratio, HarmonyOS professional productivity features including dual desktops, and will ship with the music-focused YinYueJia app. Configurations include multiple RAM/storage tiers up to 20GB+1TB (with keyboard), and it may use the Kirin T93 Pro SoC. Colors shown are Deep Space Gray and Moonlight Silver. This positions Huawei to push tablet productivity and hardware-software integration in its ecosystem.

Huawei’s in-house music app “YinYueJia” (音悦家) was showcased at a HarmonyOS office products briefing, and Huawei Terminal BG CTO Li Xiaolong confirmed it will support traditional Chinese instruments. Li also previewed the app UI, which includes two main sections—“Concert Hall” and “Studio”—and lists instruments such as the moon lute (月琴), Tang-style vertical konghou (仿唐制竖箜篌), Tang-style pear-shaped pipa (仿唐制曲颈琵琶) and silk-string guqin. Huawei says YinYueJia will include 200+ Chinese and Western instruments and professional synth tones, developed with Shanghai Conservatory to faithfully reproduce traditional instrument timbres for mobile composition, recording, arranging and mixing. This positions the app as a professional mobile music-creation studio and supports domestic cultural sounds in HarmonyOS ecosystem.

Huawei and Chinese education company Xueersi (学而思) announced an exclusive strategic partnership to embed Xueersi Learning Center into Huawei’s new Education Space on HarmonyOS-powered tablets. The integration goes beyond an ordinary app: system-level embedding lets users enter the education space with a four-finger swipe. The environment isolates apps, accounts, and data from the main tablet, enforces password protection to prevent kids from exiting, and enables parental remote control and app-approval via the Xueersi parent app. Content spans preschool to high school, offers free AI tools (homework grading, dictation), free material plus paid subscriptions, and draws on Xueersi’s learning device resources. The Education Space will arrive on MatePad Pro Max and roll out to other tablets starting June 1.

华为鸿蒙 HarmonyOS API26 新版本来袭，面向开发者开放体验官招募

OpenHarmony 7.0 Beta1 has appeared on GitCode with the API version bumped to 26, signaling groundwork for Huawei’s HarmonyOS 7.0. Huawei has opened HarmonyOS API26 developer experience officer recruitment, and the API number aligns with the OpenHarmony Beta, suggesting close coordination between the open-source project and Huawei’s commercial fork. HDC 2026 is scheduled for June 12–14, where Huawei is expected to unveil a new HarmonyOS generation and AI core capabilities, following past releases of HarmonyOS 5.0 and 6.0 at previous developer conferences. The move matters because OpenHarmony advances upstream platform development while Huawei prepares its next major OS release and ecosystem updates for developers and devices.

Huawei listed the MatePad Pro Max on its site ahead of a June 1 on-sale date, with preorders having opened May 20. The 13.2-inch flagship tablet touts a 3K flexible OLED “cloud soft” display, HarmonyOS professional productivity features including dual desktops with a PC-like desktop, and up to a Kirin T93 Pro SoC. Models include “Enjoy,” standard, and soft-glow editions with RAM/storage ranging from 12GB/256GB to 20GB/1TB (some bundles include a keyboard); colors are Deep Space Gray and Moonlight Silver. Huawei highlights an ultra-thin 499 g, 4.7 mm design enabled by a new cloud-sparrow stacking architecture and reinforced beam structure for improved rigidity. The device will also debut the YinYuejia audio app.

Huawei announced HarmonyOS API26 and opened developer recruitments for experience officers from May 20 to August 31, 2026. Selected developers will get access to API26 assets—DevEco Studio, development and empowerment toolkits, emulator, AI-assisted features, and both open and closed APIs—and are expected to actively report issues and assist reproduction to improve developer experience. No further technical details about API26 have been released; Huawei's developer site still lists HarmonyOS 6.1.1 (24) Beta as the latest public build. The program signals Huawei’s continued investment in its OS ecosystem and aims to gather developer feedback ahead of broader rollouts. IT之家 will follow up with updates.

Huawei unveiled the MatePad Pro Max tablet at a HarmonyOS office products briefing, revealing for the first time that its top configuration will use the flagship Kirin T93 Pro chipset. The new ultra-thin large tablet increases motherboard stacking density by 15% and reduces stack thickness by 22% versus the 2025 MatePad Pro 13.2. Huawei confirmed dual-layout support—tablet and PC-style desktop—and said the PC desktop mode will run productivity apps such as Eastmoney, PixelCake, ZW CAD Personal, and CapCut Pro, hinting at expanded app versatility; wider support for PC versions of apps like WeChat and QQ would further boost its utility. The disclosure marks Huawei’s first public pairing of a flagship chip with its tablet line.

鸿蒙 PC 桌面首登平板？华为 MatePad Pro Max 旗舰新机更多细节曝光

Huawei unveiled its self-developed music-creation app YinYueJia at a HarmonyOS office products briefing, positioning the tablet app as a full mobile music studio that covers composing, recording, arranging and mixing. YinYueJia includes 200+ instrument and professional synthesizer sounds and claims “one tablet is a band.” Huawei says it collaborated with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music to faithfully recreate traditional Chinese instruments such as Tang-style vertical konghou and pear-necked pipa tones, aiming to support guofeng music preservation. The launch follows Huawei’s prior in-house pro app efforts like the Fangtian-powered drawing app for HarmonyOS tablets, underscoring Huawei’s push to build a native ecosystem of professional creative software.

Huawei announced IDC data showing its tablets led China market shipments for a second consecutive year (2024–2025) and that its Qingshi (擎云) cloud services surpassed 100,000 industry customers in 2025. At a HarmonyOS (鸿蒙) Office product briefing, Zhu Dongdong, president of Huawei’s Tablet & PC line, highlighted HarmonyOS Office’s integration across form, interaction and ecosystem: unified OS across devices, ARM-compatible chips and lightweight hardware; multimodal interaction including touch, handwriting, vision and AI agents; and convergence of desktop-grade productivity and mobile entertainment. Huawei emphasized an end-to-end self‑controllable stack covering processors, hardware, OS and cloud to reshape office experience and support industry transformation.

Huawei launched a special HUAWEI WATCH GT 6 “stylish green” gift box on May 20, priced at CNY 1,588 and including two random extra watch bands. The WATCH GT 6 comes in 41mm and 46mm sizes (41mm: 1.32-inch display, up to 14 days battery; 46mm: 1.47-inch display, 65% larger high-silicon stacked battery, up to 21 days). Features include AI fitness analysis, high-range IMU sensor for fall detection and emergency calling, Bluetooth accessories support, NFC payments via Alipay, car key, music, third-party apps, and the new Sunflower positioning system for improved tracking. The Pro model (46mm) upgrades materials (sapphire, titanium, ceramic) and matches the 21-day endurance and 3,000-nit peak brightness.

Huawei announced preorders for the new HUAWEI MatePad Pro Max, a flagship productivity tablet with preorders starting today at 16:08 and retail sales set for June 1. The MatePad Pro Max emphasizes thin design (4.7mm) and a ring-style camera module, and Huawei shows a magnetic keyboard accessory that appears to connect via physical pogo pins rather than the brand’s usual wireless methods. Notably, promotional materials reveal a PC-style desktop UI on the tablet, suggesting HarmonyOS’s PC desktop environment could appear on a tablet for the first time and possibly support PC-class apps—though Huawei has not confirmed app compatibility. The move aligns with Huawei’s goal to unify tablet and PC experiences under HarmonyOS.

Huawei-backed brand HarmonyOS Zhixing (鸿蒙智行) has scheduled the launch of its new AITO Wenjie (问界) M9 series for May 27 at 19:00. Richard Yu (Yu Chengdong), Huawei senior executive, said the new generation M9 will arrive with over 140 innovations. The M9 series opened presales on April 22 with two trims: a standard model from ¥499,800 and an Ultimate long-wheelbase from ¥669,800. HarmonyOS Zhixing reported cumulative pre-orders of more than 50,000 units as of mid-May, with over 40% opting for the Ultimate trim. The release matters for EV market competition and Huawei’s strategy integrating software (HarmonyOS) and automotive platforms.