Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, and Omlet, a spinoff from Stanford University to create an open social ecosystem, jointly announced their partnership today at CES 2015.
Coming pre-installed on upcoming Huawei Android devices, Omlet’s open social platform will unlock the unique attributes of the devices, providing a way for people chat and share photos with friends without losing ownership of the data they choose to share.
To protect users’ privacy, all photos and data are shared in real time using Omlet. Users have full control of their data — Omlet lets users decide where to store their data using services such as Box, Dropbox, or Baidu Cloud. In addition to data privacy and security, the partnership will also make the social experience on Huawei more fluid, freeing people to share messages, images, videos and themes from across the device with one click.
“Omlet is a unique platform that fits with Huawei’s mission to creating the world’s best mobile experience,” says Su Jie, vice-president of R&D, Huawei Consumer BG. “By creating more seamless and secure ways to share, Omlet helps create a more social, more connected experience on Huawei devices.”
The first feature from Huawei and Omlet will make photo sharing possible from a locked screen. Called Share-First, users would be able to snap a photo and share it, all without unlocking their device, making it the fastest way to take and share photos from a phone. At the same time, recipients will be able to view and save the photo from their locked device.
Also new to Huawei is the Theme Share feature, ideal for Huawei customers who enjoy downloading themes to personalise their devices. With Theme Share, it will be easy for them to share their favourite themes with their friends.
The integration of Omlet’s open social platform in Huawei devices will make it easy to quickly create and share collaborative photo albums. The Social Gallery feature built on the Omlet platform will allow users to build, share and comment on a photo album with friends without the use of any central data storage.
These features will start to ship with Huawei devices later this year, and mark the first innovations to come from the Huawei and Omlet partnership.
“Consumers will love how Omlet on Huawei smartphones will simplify sharing,” says Monica Lam, Co-Founder of Omlet and Professor of Computer Science, Stanford University. “Partnering with Huawei gives Omlet an opportunity to further expand the open social, privacy-enhancing ecosystem, the primary mission for all of us at Omlet.”