Honor showcases just how helpful GenAI can be with MagicOS 8

Honor has revealed MagicOS 8.0 in China, and it’s safe to say it’s heavily focused on GenAI capabilities.

The update’s headline feature is the introduction of a fully integrated platform-level AI that the company claims boosts “smart connectivity, performance, privacy and security, and visual aesthetics”. 

That comes in the form of MagicLM, the company’s proprietary large language model with seven billion parameters that should allow for the likes of text generation, image generation and even the ability to find a specific frame in a video based on natural language prompts.

Honor has worked closely with Qualcomm during the development of the LLM and claims that the GenAI functionality works “smoothly and efficiently” on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, confirming suspicions that only top-end 2024 Honor smartphones will be able to take advantage of the tech. 

It’s much more than an LLM though; the true magic of MagicOS 8 looks to be Magic Portal, which Honor claims can provide services and shortcuts based on user intention rather than acting upon requests like most other AI features and functionality. 

It’s said that the AI can “interpret language, images, gestures and eye movements to understand a user’s intent and offer services proactively” to deliver shortcuts to access services between apps and even devices with a single swipe. 

That’s a little nebulous, so Honor showcased a specific example of how useful Magic Portal can be during the reveal of the software. 

In the example, a user gets a text message with hotel booking confirmation details. Rather than opening up ride-sharing app Didi Chuxing (the Chinese equivalent of Uber) and pre-booking the cars to and from the hotel, the user drags and drops the text onto the app’s icon in the sidebar. 

The built-in AI then automatically inputs the dates, times and locations for the user, leaving them to simply confirm the request. 

According to Honor, this reduces the process from 8 steps in 10 seconds to just a single swipe. It’s not just limited to ride-sharing apps either; Honor claims it has been working with Chinese industry partners like Alibaba, Baidu, Alipay and more to integrate support into their apps. 

That’s the big caveat here; developers will need to specifically add support for Honor’s Magic Portal functionality within their apps. The company has been working on app support in China for quite some time, but the company has yet to start the process with developers here in the West. 

That means that we likely won’t be seeing Magic Portal on the likes of the rumoured Honor Magic 6 Pro any time soon outside of China, but it does at least give us a glimpse at how GenAI will soon be making our lives much easier.