Hongmeng OS not a replacement for Android: Huawei

Hongmeng OS was widely believed to be Huawei’s replacement for Android OS on smartphones. Huawei clarifies that it isn’t.

Huawei has been working on a separate operating system for quite some time. (AFP)

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei said that the in-house platform - Hongmeng OS - is not designed for smartphones and the company plans to continue using Android.

While a mobile platform usually contains millions of lines of code, Hongmeng had "hundreds of thousands" of lines which makes it more secure and has an extreme low latency compared to other smartphone operating systems, Catherine Chen, Senior Vice President, Huawei told reporters.

Hongmeng OS has previously been widely reported in the media as a potential alternative to Android on smartphones, The Verge reported on Friday.

Addressing the media reports, Chen said the Hongmeng operating system is for industrial use and the system has been in development long before the current discussions around finding an alternative to Android.

Earlier, Andrew Williamson, Vice President of Huawei's Public Affairs and Communications, said the company was in the process of launching Hongmeng as an alternative to Android and it would be ready in months.