NetEase Cloud Music Signals Upcoming HarmonyOS Native App Launch

NetEase Cloud Music signaled that its HarmonyOS native version is nearing launch after posting a red vinyl record poster with the HarmonyOS logo on its official Weibo account on August 30, according to Jiemian News. On August 31, customer service said users should follow official announcements for the HarmonyOS beta version timeline, indicating that an internal test build is likely to come first before a full release. The app has been absent from Huawei's HarmonyOS phone ecosystem for more than 900 days, while QQ Music, Kugou Music and Douyin-owned Qishui Music have already launched native HarmonyOS versions. In Huawei AppGallery's wish-list section, requests for a HarmonyOS native NetEase Cloud Music app have exceeded 200,000. Users have been relying on the ZhuoyiTong virtual machine to run the Android version, but complaints have included forced background shutdowns, playback controls failing on the lock screen, lag when skipping tracks, playlist sync errors and higher battery drain. Huawei said OpenHarmony now has more than 13,000 contributors, over 650 ecosystem partners and more than 2,000 products. It also said devices running HarmonyOS 6 have surpassed 80 million and are expected to exceed 100 million in the fourth quarter, while HarmonyOS native apps have topped 100,000 and OpenHarmony ecosystem devices have exceeded 1.3 billion. The delay has also come with a market cost for NetEase Cloud Music. QuestMobile said in a March report that Qishui Music's monthly active users reached 156 million, up 78% year on year, overtaking NetEase Cloud Music's 147 million for the first time. NetEase Cloud Music's monthly active users peaked at 184 million in 2021.