OpenHarmony 3.1 Released with Enhanced System Capabilities

OpenHarmony 3.1 has been officially released.

The current version builds on OpenHarmony 3.1 Beta and adds the following capabilities:

Standard system core capability enhancements

Local basic audio‑video playback, video hardware encoding/decoding, camera preview and capture.

RenderService new rendering framework, 2D/3D drawing, new animation and display effect framework.

New window management framework offering flexible window modes, full‑screen, split‑screen, windowed forms, and cross‑window drag support.

Display management supporting split‑screen, enhanced screen on/off control, window animations and effects.

Basic support for mouse, keyboard, touchpad and common sensors such as accelerometer, gyroscope, hall sensor, and motor vibration.

Language and region selection, new/enhanced internationalization features, system resources, rawfile resources.

Time zone synchronization, clipboard, lock‑screen service, static wallpaper, download service management.

System service status monitoring, cross‑device on‑call capability, long‑term, short‑term and delayed task scheduling.

Memory management enhancements, basic power management, improved process scheduling.

Local account, domain account binding, distributed account ID derivation and status management, local app permission management, distributed permission management.

Wi‑Fi STA, AP, P2P basic capabilities with JS API, new Bluetooth BR, SPP, BLE capabilities with JS API, new location service subsystem providing location framework.

Standard system distributed capability enhancements

Distributed soft bus network switching, P2P connection, stream transmission, Bluetooth capabilities.

Hardware assistance, resource sharing, support for mirroring and extended screen casting.

Device online/offline and PIN authentication enhancements, storage management, app sandbox isolation, public data sandbox isolation, distributed database, distributed data objects, local database access and cross‑app database access.

Standard system application framework capability enhancements

ArkUI custom drawing and Lottie animation capabilities, keyboard and mouse interaction.

Declarative Web components and XComponent component capabilities.

Card capabilities for adding, deleting, and refreshing cards.

Multi‑user capabilities, multi‑HAP installation, implicit queries, multi‑user permission management, distributed notifications, and notification template functions.

Standard system application capability enhancements

System application building, including system desktop, SystemUI, settings, camera, gallery, call, contacts, messaging, notes, file selector, input method, and other app support.

According to public information, the OpenHarmony open‑source project is incubated and operated by the OpenAtom Foundation, with the OpenHarmony project group working committee responsible for its operation.

OpenHarmony follows a layered design: kernel layer, system service layer, framework layer, and application layer.

System functions are organized as "system > subsystem > component" and can be trimmed in multi‑device deployment scenarios to exclude unnecessary components.

OpenHarmony supports the following system types:

Lightweight system (mini system) : Targeted at MCU‑class processors such as Arm Cortex‑M and RISC‑V 32‑bit devices with extremely limited resources (minimum 128 KiB memory). It provides lightweight network protocols, a lightweight graphics framework, and rich IoT bus components, suitable for smart‑home modules, sensors, and wearables.

Small system : Targeted at application processors like Arm Cortex‑A with a minimum of 1 MiB memory, offering higher security, standard graphics framework, and multimedia video codec capabilities, suitable for IP cameras, electronic doorbells, routers, and vehicle dashcams.

Standard system : Targeted at application processors like Arm Cortex‑A with a minimum of 128 MiB memory, delivering enhanced interaction, 3D GPU and hardware composition, richer controls and effects, and a complete application framework, suitable for high‑end appliances such as refrigerator displays.