China's ubiquitous super-app WeChat, operated by Tencent Holdings, has thrown its support behind Huawei Technologies' highly anticipated home-grown mobile operating system HarmonyOS Next by rolling out beta testing of key functions.

WeChat began beta testing on Tuesday by sending invitations to certain users who have already upgraded to the latest iteration of Huawei's mobile operating system, Tencent said in an announcement.

WeChat, which has over 1.37 billion monthly active users, is an essential tool for Chinese users to chat, shop, play games and make payments. However, its beta version on HarmonyOS Next only covers essential functions such as messaging, audio and video calls, as well social media page Moments and QR-code scanning to pay and receive money.

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Tencent said more than 20 of its apps are currently being developed as HarmonyOS Next-compatible versions, including social media platform QQ, video conferencing tool Tencent Meeting and work collaboration app WeCom.

Huawei first launched HarmonyOS as an Android alternative for the Chinese market in August 2019. Photo: Handout alt=Huawei first launched HarmonyOS as an Android alternative for the Chinese market in August 2019. Photo: Handout>

The Shenzhen-based company on Tuesday did not immediately respond to a request for comment, asking when it would release WeChat's HarmonyOS Next version with full functionality.

"Tencent will gradually update and improve in subsequent versions, under the premise of ensuring product stability and user experience," the company said in the announcement.

On Tuesday, Huawei launched public beta testing of HarmonyOS Next, which the company touts as an alternative to Apple's iOS and Google's Android, on existing devices including its Mate 60 series smartphone, the Mate X5 foldable model and its MatePad Pro tablet.

HarmonyOS Next, which Huawei said was independently developed, no longer supports Android-based applications, prompting it to be dubbed "pure blood" HarmonyOS in China.

Huawei plans to officially release HarmonyOS Next with the Mate 70 series flagship smartphones later this year, rotating deputy chairman Eric Xu Zhijun said in May.

The company was previously reported to be close to reaching a deal with Tencent that would have made WeChat fully operational on HarmonyOS without sharing any revenue, according to a report by Bloomberg in June.

However, the two tech giants have not always agreed. In July, multiple video game titles from Tencent disappeared from the top lists of Huawei's app store. The rift escalated a month ago when the video gaming giant pulled its hit title Dungeon & Fighter Mobile from the Huawei store.

The HarmonyOS name displayed on mobile phone screen. Photo: Shutterstock alt=The HarmonyOS name displayed on mobile phone screen. Photo: Shutterstock>

Huawei first launched HarmonyOS as an Android alternative for the Chinese market in August 2019, just months after the US government added the Shenzhen-based company to a trade blacklist that blocked it from buying US-originated technologies without Washington's approval.

Domestic adoption of the mobile platform jumped last year on the back of Huawei's return to the 5G handset market with its Mate 60 series smartphones.

HarmonyOS accounted for 17 per cent of China's smartphone market in the first three months of this year, doubling its presence from the same period last year and overtaking Apple's iOS to become the second-biggest mobile operating system in mainland China, according to a Counterpoint report in June.

While Android continued to dominate China's mobile market with a 68 per cent share in the same period, iOS fell slightly behind with a 16 per cent share, the research firm said.

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