With 1.38 billion monthly active users, WeChat has become a must-have digital tool for mainland Chinese users, making it indispensable for Huawei’s goal to break the dominance of Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS in its home market.
Tencent last March assigned an experienced team to lead the development of WeChat’s HarmonyOS version, the company said on Wednesday. The team has been in charge of building various versions of WeChat through the years, including for Nokia’s Symbian mobile operating system.
Huawei has been rebuilding its consumer device business after US sanctions decimated sales of its smartphones. Barred from accessing US-origin technologies, the Chinese tech giant has doubled down on efforts to reduce reliance on both foreign software and hardware.
