Huawei kicked off its Developer Conference 2025 with a major reveal—HarmonyOS 6. Taking the stage was Richard Yu, Executive Director at Huawei, who outlined how the company’s homegrown operating system is evolving with a strong focus on AI-driven interactions and tighter integration across devices.
While HarmonyOS 6 brings the expected refinements—UI polish, performance tweaks, and usability updates—the star of the announcement is a new Intelligent Agent Framework, a core feature designed to make interaction with devices more fluid and contextual.
Meet XiaoYi: HarmonyOS Gets Smarter with AI
At the center of this update is XiaoYi, Huawei’s new AI assistant built on the Intelligent Agent Framework. Unlike traditional assistants, XiaoYi is designed to understand context, not just follow scripted voice commands.
Need help with a spreadsheet? Just talk to ChatExcel, an app integrated with the assistant. Want to build your own HarmonyOS app? XiaoYi can walk you through it—right from the device. It even supports screen scanning to offer search results based on what’s currently visible, similar to Google’s Circle to Search.
The idea is for HarmonyOS to behave less like an operating system and more like a digital partner—something that proactively assists, not just reacts.
Touch and Share, Dev Beta, and Supported Devices
Another new feature is Touch and Share, which allows seamless file transfers and gameplay linking between compatible Huawei PCs and smartphones. Just tap the devices together to connect. Huawei didn’t confirm the full list of supported models yet, but it’s likely limited to their own hardware.
Alongside the launch, Huawei opened the HarmonyOS 6 Developer Beta Program, running until June 30. To join, developers need to register and verify through the Huawei Developer Alliance.
Supported devices for the beta include:
- Huawei Mate 70 / 70 Pro
- Huawei Mate 60 / 60 Pro
- Huawei Mate X5
- Huawei MatePad Pro 11″ (2024)
- Huawei MatePad Pro 13.2″ (2025)
With HarmonyOS 6, Huawei is clearly positioning itself to compete on the strength of AI, privacy, and a tightly integrated ecosystem—especially in markets where Google services aren’t available.
