JadeCircuithello@jadecircuit.com

Guide

Does your company need a HarmonyOS app?

A plain-English guide for non-Chinese businesses.

Short version: If reaching Huawei users — above all in China, but increasingly worldwide — matters to your business, you probably do, because their newest phones can no longer run your Android app. If Huawei isn't a real market for you, you can likely skip it for now. Here's how to tell which camp you're in.

What actually changed

For years, Huawei phones ran Android, so your existing app just worked on them. That's over. Huawei's current devices ship with HarmonyOS, their own operating system, and it does not run Android apps — your APK won't install, and there are no Google services underneath. To exist on those devices at all, you need an app built for HarmonyOS and published on Huawei's AppGallery.

Four questions to decide

1. Do you have — or want — users on Huawei devices? Huawei is one of the largest phone makers on earth and dominant in China, with a growing base across the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Africa and parts of Europe. If any of those markets matter to you, a meaningful share of users is now on HarmonyOS.

2. Is your app something those users reach for? Consumer apps, fintech, retail, travel, media and anything with a Chinese audience feel the gap most. A purely internal tool for a Western office, less so.

3. What does being absent cost you? If a Huawei user can't download you, they use a competitor who's there. For some businesses that's a rounding error; for others it's a market.

4. How much can you reuse? Good news: your backend, APIs and logic carry over. Often a Flutter codebase can target HarmonyOS alongside iOS and Android; otherwise the UI is rebuilt natively in ArkTS over your existing services. Either way you're not starting from zero.

You probably need one if…

  • China is (or could be) a market for you;
  • you're consumer-facing and Huawei has real share in your regions;
  • you can already see Huawei devices in your analytics being turned away.

You can probably wait if…

  • your users are concentrated in markets where Huawei is rare (e.g. the US);
  • you're B2B with a known, non-Huawei device fleet;
  • you're pre-product-market-fit and every euro counts.

What building one involves

In practice it's four steps: a short assessment (is it worth it, what can be reused), the build or port, getting through AppGallery review — the part overseas teams most underestimate — and ongoing maintenance as the platform evolves. We break this down on our HarmonyOS app development page.

Not sure which camp you're in?

Tell us your app and your markets — we'll give you an honest read, no pressure.

hello@jadecircuit.com