Last week, HarmonyOS officially announced the “Hundred Devices Upgrade Plan,” with over 180 devices set to upgrade to HarmonyOS 4.2 by June, laying the groundwork for the HarmonyOS NEXT (5.0) version in the latter half of the year. Essentially, devices capable of upgrading to HarmonyOS 4.2 will mostly be able to upgrade to HarmonyOS 5.0, so we can think of HarmonyOS 4.2 as a stepping stone to 5.0.

However, the rollout of HarmonyOS 4.2 is in batches. On April 11th, a total of 24 Huawei devices were open for public beta recruitment, and on April 15th, another 15 Huawei devices joined the public beta recruitment. These include the P50 series, nova12 series, Pocket series, MateXs 2 series, as well as MatePad Air and MatePad 11-inch 2023 models, covering 13 smartphones and 2 tablets.

The process of upgrading is simple; just enter the “My Huawei” app and click on the “Early Access” upgrade. Of course, if your phone is not included in the public beta recruitment, clicking on the “Early Access” upgrade won’t work, and it will display “No devices eligible for early access found.” I know many users have Kirin 990 phones, and these models are likely to be arranged in the last batch, between May at the earliest and June at the latest, so patience is needed.

Now, let’s talk about the content of the HarmonyOS 4.2 upgrade. Currently, the official disclosure mentions that the UI interface has enhanced operational details for more scenarios, and the artistic protagonist theme allows custom background replacement when cutting out images. In terms of system functions, there are improvements in satellite communication connection speed, optimization of photography and preview scenes, and enhancements in application startup, task switching, and swipe operations. Additionally, new features include WLAN network automatic connection and Bluetooth device recording switches.

Of course, in addition to Huawei phones, early models of the Honor series can also get the HarmonyOS 4.2 upgrade. Known models include the Honor Play4 Pro, 30 series, and V30 series, totaling 6 models. Other Honor devices, however, will miss out on the HarmonyOS 4.2 upgrade. The reason is simple: these six Honor phones all feature Kirin 990 chips and are highly likely to be eligible for the HarmonyOS 5.0 upgrade in the future.