Huawei’s Ark Compiler can port Android apps to its own OS. Here’s what you need to know

Huawei Technologies officially unveiled its self-made operating system, Harmony OS, in China last week as the world’s second-largest smartphone vendor continues to battle the effects of being put on a US trade blacklist in May.

Photo credit Kārlis Dambrāns

Harmony is ready to be installed on smartphones “anytime,” although the company still prefers to use Google’s Android OS on its handsets provided it is still available, Richard Yu Chengdong, chief executive of Huawei’s consumer business group, said during the launch event.

“Migrating Android apps to Harmony is very easy and only requires one or two days’ work,” Yu said.

Huawei’s confidence rests on a technology, known as the Ark Compiler, that the Chinese company has spent 10 years developing. It helps developers make Android-backed apps compatible with Huawei’s Harmony.

Here is what you need to know about this critical technology:

1. What is the Ark Compiler and how does it work?

A compiler is a computer program that translates human programming language to machine language. As a bridge between human instructions and the machine’s ability to understand, the efficiency of a compiler is crucial to execution.

The Ark Compiler, released along with Huawei’s flagship smartphone P30 series in April, began development in 2009 when the company started researching 5G, according to a verified post from Huawei on China’s Quora-like website Zhihu on August 9.

Unlike Google’s approach of interpreting code during execution, Huawei said its Ark Compiler is designed for deployment during software development and can enable direct translation into machine language, removing the need for an “interpreter” during installation and execution.

Android apps will not be compatible with Harmony by default, but they can be ported to the new OS with the help of the Ark Compiler.

The computer program can greatly improve the Android system’s efficiency, enhancing fluency by 24%, response speed by 44%, and smoothness of third-party applications by up to 60%, according to previous media interviews with Huawei.

Huawei declined to comment for this article.

2. Why is Ark Compiler critical for Huawei right now?