Huawei HarmonyOS 6 finally makes sharing files with iPhone less painful

Cross platform file sharing finally stops being a nightmare

For a long time, moving photos, videos or work files between an iPhone and an Android phone felt like a punishment. You could email yourself, spam a chat with images, upload to the cloud or plug in cables, but nothing matched the simple tap and send experience of AirDrop inside the Apple ecosystem. That one missing piece quietly pushed many people to stay fully on iPhone, even if they liked some Android hardware better.

That landscape is changing fast. Google has already revealed that its Pixel 10 generation will offer a smoother, AirDrop like bridge for iPhone users. Now Huawei is joining the same race with a very different weapon: HarmonyOS 6 and a new way to connect its devices directly to Apple gadgets. The result is that one of the most annoying borders in mobile tech is starting to crack.

From sanctions to HarmonyOS 6 superpowers

Huawei did not decide to build HarmonyOS for fun. When United States sanctions hit in 2019, the company lost access to many of the Google services and components that make Android phones attractive outside China. Faced with that cliff, Huawei pivoted to its own platform. HarmonyOS began as a survival project and has been expanding ever since.

Today HarmonyOS 6 is rolling out to more than fifty Huawei devices, including phones, tablets and other connected gadgets. The focus is no longer only on keeping existing customers inside the brand. Huawei wants to show that HarmonyOS can act as the glue between screens, speakers and wearables, and that its software can stand shoulder to shoulder with both Android and iOS when it comes to convenience and polish.

A dedicated iOS app that opens the door

The big twist in this chapter is that Huawei is not trying to wall users in. Instead, it has released a companion app in Apple’s App Store built specifically to talk to HarmonyOS 6 devices. Install it on an iPhone, an iPad or a Mac and it can scan for nearby Huawei hardware that runs HarmonyOS 6 or later, then establish a secure connection for sharing content.

Once devices are paired, owners can move contacts, photo libraries, short clips or big video files without falling back on chat apps or third party cloud links. The app lets users browse available Huawei devices, preview files before sending, and check a history of transfers so they can confirm what went where. There are panels for basic device info and a help and feedback section for the moments when things do not behave as expected.

HarmonyOS 6 itself supports more than simple file hopping. Remote control features allow a phone to act as a sort of universal remote for other Huawei gear, and the same underlying interconnection tech makes it easier to keep multiple screens in sync. For people juggling a Huawei tablet, a laptop and an iPhone, this kind of glue can quietly save a lot of time every single day.

Early impressions: photos, motion shots and big media

Initial reports from users suggest that Huawei’s solution already feels surprisingly mature. High resolution photos move quickly between platforms, and motion style shots keep their liveliness instead of turning into flat stills. Longer clips, such as holiday videos or social media content, also make the jump reliably as long as the connection is stable.

Because the app supports iOS, iPadOS and macOS, the setup fits smoothly into the lives of people who already own more than one Apple device. You can take a picture on a Huawei phone, clean it up on a HarmonyOS tablet and then drop the final version onto a MacBook for editing or archiving. The same works in the other direction for iPhone clips that need to be viewed or presented on a larger Huawei screen.

China first, and maybe only for a while

There is one major catch. At the moment, this cross platform bridge only works with HarmonyOS 6 devices in China. That limitation mirrors Huawei’s business reality. In Western markets the brand’s phone presence has shrunk dramatically because of sanctions and the lack of Google apps. In its home territory, however, Huawei is enjoying a serious rebound and once again feels like a national champion.

Apple is still part of that story. Recent figures from October show that the latest iPhone 17 line is selling extremely well in China. Roughly one out of every four smartphones sold during that period carried an Apple logo, and total iPhone sales grew strongly compared with the same month a year before. The standard iPhone 17 is leading the charge, while the Pro versions are also posting solid double digit increases. New iPhone models now account for the bulk of Apple’s device sales in the country, giving the company one of its strongest openings to a December quarter there.

Into this competitive climate, Huawei is preparing the Mate 80 series, a flagship family aimed squarely at premium buyers who might otherwise pick an iPhone 17. Making file transfers and basic collaboration with Apple devices painless is a subtle but smart move. It reduces the feeling that choosing Huawei means cutting yourself off from friends, family or colleagues who still live in the Apple universe.

Why this matters more than benchmark charts

Spec sheets, camera bumps and benchmark scores grab headlines, but daily comfort often decides which phone people stick with. If sharing a set of photos with your partner takes three taps instead of ten, you feel that difference every day. Cross platform features also matter for mixed households and workplaces where some people swear by Android while others insist on iOS.

By giving HarmonyOS 6 and iPhone owners a bridge that mostly fades into the background, Huawei is competing on ecosystem experience, not only on raw hardware. The move also nudges the broader industry toward a future where choosing one platform does not mean total isolation from another. When Google, Huawei and others work on these bridges, it becomes harder for any company to justify frustrating barriers.

Travel, roaming and the eSIM angle

All of this becomes even more useful once you leave your home country. Sharing sunsets, street food photos or work documents during a trip depends on fast and affordable data. That is where digital only mobile plans, such as the ones offered through Nomad style eSIM services, slide into the story. Deals that cut the cost of roaming data by a quarter when using promo codes like IPHONE25 make it far easier to stay online without hunting for plastic SIM cards or relying on sketchy cafe Wi Fi.

Combine a cheap eSIM with HarmonyOS 6 interconnection and the iOS companion app, and you can land in a new city, activate data in a few taps and move media freely between Huawei and Apple devices as if they were part of one extended family.

The slow fall of the walled garden

Huawei’s new sharing tools will not erase years of rivalry between major tech brands, and for now they are confined to China. Still, they point to a broader shift. Users increasingly expect their devices to cooperate instead of fighting for attention, and the brands that reduce friction will quietly win loyalty.

HarmonyOS 6, backed by an iOS app that actually treats the iPhone as a partner instead of a rival, is a clear step in that direction. Whether you are watching the iPhone 17 surge in sales, waiting for the Mate 80 reveal or simply tired of emailing yourself photos, one thing is clear. The days when your choice of phone locked you into a tiny island are numbered, and the next generation of ecosystems will be judged by how well they talk to each other, not just by how loudly they shout about specs.