Chinese tech giant Huawei on Tuesday released HarmonyOS NEXT, its self-developed operating system built independent of Android architecture.

The launch event in Shenzhen, where the company is based, marks another milestone for Huawei since Washington put it on the "Entity List" in 2019, barring it from doing business with U.S. firms including Google, which provides Android.

HarmonyOS NEXT is the fifth iteration of HarmonyOS. HarmonyOS has been installed on over 1 billion devices, said Yu Chengdong, Huawei's executive director.

HarmonyOS is an open-source operating system designed for various devices and scenarios, including intelligent screens, tablets, wearables and cars. It was first launched in August 2019 and has replaced Apple's iOS to become the second-largest mobile operating system on the Chinese market.