Everything to know about HarmonyOS, Huawei's answer to Android as the trade war between the US and China rages on

The first iteration of the software will be available on upcoming smart screen devices set to launch later this year. Huawei's Honor Smart Screen, which the company says it will unveil on Saturday, will be the first product to run the software.

Smart screens are essentially tablets that are meant to be positioned in the home, like the one made by Lenovo pictured above. They're similar to smart speakers like the Amazon Echo or Google Home, but with a screen.

It's not the first time we've heard that Huawei has additional smart home products in the works. The company was reportedly working with Google on a new smart speaker that would include the search giant's virtual assistant, The Information reported in July. But that plan fell through once Huawei was blacklisted.

Over the next three years, Harmony OS will start to appear in other devices as well, such as wearables and cars.

Harmony OS will be capable of adapting to different screen layouts and interactions, says Huawei. This means developers can code their apps just once and they should work across various types of devices.

The operating system will have what is known as a Deterministic Latency Engine, which as its name implies helps the software discern which tasks to prioritize in order to achieve fast performance. The company claims this should reduce latency in apps by 25.7%.

Huawei says it will "lay the foundations for HarmonyOS" in the Chinese market, suggesting that it will debut in China first. It will then expand it globally as an open-source platform available around the world.