[EMUI Tips & Tricks] uzair0345:
Hello Everyone,

If you are using HONOR/HUAWEI Devices you might have an idea that Huawei does some customization to stock Android by adding the flavor of EMUI on top.

Huawei started introducing EMUI version on 30th December 2012 by introducing EMUI 1.0. From that moment on, all Huawei Smartphones are coming with EMUI on top of Android, except for when Huawei join hands with google to launch a Nexus 6P Smartphone.

Let's start with EMUI 1.0 and go all the way up to EMUI 10 and see what changes Huawei made in EMUI over the years:

1. Emotion UI 1.0:

Huawei Introduced EMUI 1.0 back in December 2012. At that time Huawei called it Emotion UI 1.0 and it was based on Android 4.0. It also featured Huawei's own voice assistant app but only in china.

Other prominent features of EMUI 1.0 include:

1. Customizable HomeScreens

2. Theme Switching

Huawei later rolled out the installation of EMUI 1.0 for Huawei Ascend P1 Smartphone

Some of the Features Screenshot from Ascend P1 running EMUI 1.0:

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2. Emotion UI 2.0:

In Januray 2015, Huawei released Emotion UI 2.3 firmware based on Android 4.4 Kitkat for its Ascend P6 users. Earlier it launched the Emotion UI 2.0 but due to its limited roll-out not much information is available on Emotion UI 2.0.

Here is a screenshot of Ascend P6 running emotion ui 2.3 beta

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3. Emotion UI 3.0:

This version is officially launched on 4 September 2014 with Ascend Mate 7 in the pre-IFA event in Berlin. The user interface was ever since called “EMUI” instead of “Emotion UI”.

Following are the prominent features of EMUI 3.0:

Theme Manager:

Themes now also are able to set basic color schemes of the built-in applications, meaning there's something there for everybody's taste.

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Tabbed Recent Tasks

Instead of having a linear list of screen caps or a card design as found in Android 5.0, Huawei offers a "tabbed" interface, showing 4 applications per screen and swipe-able screens to be able to scroll through the tab windows. Swiping a tab up closes the application, swiping it down locks it from being closed by the memory manager. Alternatively, you can swipe from the bottom of the screen to close all apps.

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Network Manager:

EmUI 3.0. Huawei provides fine-granularity controls over installed applications on the phone. As such, you're able to determine network access (WiFi or mobile data) on a per-app basis in the Network Manager, while also monitoring their data usage. A Notification Manager enables you to control which applications are allowed to push notifications to the system, giving the possibility to have apps prompt, or directly whitelist or blacklist them.

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Permission Manager:

The Permission Manager is also extremely competent, almost totally foregoing Android's built-in permission settings. You can have an application prompt for specific permissions whenever they actually need them and accept or deny them on a per-app, per-permission basis. The Android app ecosystem has an issue with applications requesting a lot of, sometimes dubious permissions. I see this as Huawei's attempt at alleviating user concerns about security. For those who think this might be a too bothersome system - I strongly disagree; it is not very intrusive, while still being able to provide lots of power of control.

Battery & Power Manager:

The Battery and Power Consumption managers again offer lots of information - Huawei seems to be very strict in trying to reign in power abusive and misbehaving applications. If you have an application which is running in the background and taking up a more-than normal amount of CPU cycles a notification warning will tell you about it and give you the possibility to kill the app. A manager dedicated to listing the background power of all applications on the phone enables you to identify power drains.

App Lock Feature:

You can also use your fingerprint to protect contacts, and message conversations, private albums and even per-app locking mechanism. This is one of the more attractive Android OEM skins

4. EMUI 4.0:

Huawei launch EMUI 4.0 In late 2015, based on Android 6.0, along with the Huawei Mate 8. Following are the prominent features of EMUI 4.0

Multi Window:

You can open 2 apps at a time using multi window option and therefore multi tasking can be done with ease

SoS Feature:

A combination of buttons can be used in order to generate SOS message and call. It will get your exact location from gps and will send the SOS message to your listed emergency contacts

Compass Application:

The newly added compass application is very useful for finding the correct directions. The App also turns on the camera so that you can have a better idea about North/West/South/East directions

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Alarm Ringtone duration:

With the option to customize the alarm ringtone duration, you can now set the duration according to your own needs. You might be a lazy person who never gets up with the 1 minute alarm duration but now you can set the duration of alarm to make sure that you don't get late for office/school.

Screen recording

Screen recording is that you can record on your phone screen after opening. With this feature, you can create a small video tutorial, easy to guide the distant relatives or friends.

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Join Contacts Feature

Join Contacts Feature available which can be used to merger contacts from different accounts (e.g Facebook, Gmail, Phone Contacts etc) into a single particular person contact

Intelligent Contacts

Contacts saved with same company name will be grouped.

Message-Cancel send within 4 seconds

Do you have this moment, which you found the wrong message sent within 0. 01 seconds after click it? Encountered this issue, how do you feel? The new version adds a feature to cancel message sent, as long as you cancel sending the SMS within 4 seconds.

Soft lock

Soft lock feature is provided for convenience, to enable go to Smart assistance-> Navigation bar.

5. EMUI 5.0:

EMUI 5.0 was introduced in 2016 with the launch of Huawei Mate 9. Its based on Android Nougat 7.0

Following are the noticeable features added in EMUI 5.0 version:

App-Drawer:

With EMUI 5.0, Huawei finally added a traditional app drawer. This is a welcome change as most of the Android Users including me prefer using App Drawer instead of using Apps from HomeScreen

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The app drawer isn't enabled by default, but you can easily turn it on from the settings. Just head to Settings -> Home screen style -> Drawer to switch to enable the traditional app drawer. The drawer sorts your installed apps in a vertically scrolling list, and there's a suggestions pane at the top that shows you your frequently used apps along with a search bar.

Quick Toggles n Notification Panel:

In EMUI 5.0, Huawei went with the two-stage notification window that includes quick toggles at the top of the pane. The quick toggles are customizable, and there's also a brightness slider that lets you easily adjust the display's brightness.

Notifications work the way they're supposed to on Nougat — you can easily expand and swipe away alerts, and use in-line replies to compose a quick reply without having to go into the app.

UI gets an Overhaul:

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EMUI 5.0 brings the biggest visual refresh to the skin in recent years. Huawei's stock apps now feature predominantly white visual elements with blue accents "inspired by the Aegean Sea," and the UI as a whole feels significantly less cluttered. The settings have also been simplified, giving you easy access to core functions without having to go several levels into a sub-category.

You can now use display scaling options to adjust the size of the interface elements and enable a blue light filter to reduce eye strain at night. There's also the ability to tweak the color temperature of the display, alter the configuration of the on-screen nav keys, change the look of the UI with themes, and much more.

Battery Saving features:

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Huawei has overhauled the battery saving feature in EMUI 5.0. Battery is now a top-level category in the settings, and the manufacturer has added new power-saving features that allow you to eke out the most from the battery

The standard power saving mode kills background apps, turns off auto sync and animations to maximize battery life. The "Ultra" mode switches everything off, only giving you access to six apps of your choice. Dialer, Messaging, Contacts, and SOS are set as default, but you can remove them and add your own apps. The mode is designed to extend battery life when the battery level is low, and it certainly manages to do that.

EMUI also has an optimization feature that lets you identify apps that are consuming too much battery in the background, and you also have the option of lowering the screen resolution to increase battery life.

App Twin Feature:

https://iforum-sg.c.huawei.com/dddd/images/2020/4/23/3203d493-7640-400c-abcb-47dc8f39b67d.jpg?imageId=116013[/IMG[/CENTER]]

The most exciting feature about Huawei EMUI 5.0 is the AppTwin Feature that lets you use run 2 instances of the most common social media apps (Whatsapp & Facebook etc). This means that you can turn on the App Twin feature and can create separate accounts for business and personal usage with ease and without the need to carry 2 handsets

[COLOR="Red"][B][SIZE="5"]6. Emotion UI 8.0:[/SIZE][/B][/COLOR]

EMUI 8 was released in late 2017 by Huawei with the launch of Huawei Mate 10 Series. Huawei skipped EMUI 6.0 & 7.0 to align EMUI versioning with Android 8 OS and that is why it used EMUI 8.0

Let's take a look at prominent features of Huawei EMUI 8.0:

[B] Improved Gesture Controls[/B]

This feature can be enabled using the Settings menu under “Smart Assistance”. EMUI 8.0 can take screenshots with the help of intelligent tricks. This can be done by sliding down three fingers for a perfect screen shot. Every screenshot you click is supported by a pop up screen with the option to edit, share, and take a scrolling screenshot.

Single - handed mode on EMUI 8.0 is also amazing and can be enabled from Smart Assistance. To launch this feature, you have to swipe down and form a small curve from the left and right side. Meanwhile, you can continue using the phone’s functions normally in the small screen. If you wish to go back to normal mode, just tap on the outer screen.

[B] Floating Navigation Dock[/B]

If you are a Mate 10 or Mate 10 Pro user then you must be aware that there is no hard key to navigate the phone, therefore you can facilitate from floating navigation dock.

First, you need to enable it by going to [B]Settings > Smart Assistance > System Navigation.[/B]

[CENTER][IMG]https://iforum-sg.c.huawei.com/dddd/images/2020/4/23/664380e6-f369-40b3-b0da-e2f5b709292c.jpg?imageId=116064​

You can now view a white button on the screen which is the floating navigation dock. Although it looks similar to Apple’s Assistive Touch, but the functions are entirely different. Pressing on the navigation dock and pulling it left or right will launch the recent apps tab. If you tap it once it will take you back to the previous. And pressing on it and releasing it will take you back to the Home screen. You can even drag the navigation dock around the screen.

Mobile PC Dock less

This feature can support most of the apps, and protect privacy of users, along with incoming notifications. You can share presentations, watch movies, carrying bulky document etc. Therefore you can use your Smartphone and connect it with bigger displays with ease. All you need to use Huawei's EMUI 8 desktop mode is a USB-C-to-HDMI cable -- and an HDMI monitor.

Dynamic Wallpaper

The theme app is already there on Huawei devices that enable the users to customize wallpapers and more. “Dynamic Wallpaper” is the new concept that is present on EMUI 8.0. This wallpaper is mainly of landscape and it changes its texture with every passing day. For instance, during morning hours, wallpaper will display sunrise, and by evening it might show sunset.

Battery launch

You can save battery on EMUI 8.0 using this feature which can be accessed as ‘Launch’ in the Settings menu. You can optimize battery usage for each app on your smart phone. You can manage battery usage either manually or automatically. You can toggle on/off three options for an app to auto launch, secondary launch, or run in the background.

7. Emotion UI 9.0:

Huawei introduced EMUI 9.0, the 9th version of Emotion UI during IFA 2018. EMUI brought some really excited features to Huawei Smartphones and it can be considered as best step forward by Huawei after introduction of EMUI 5.0.

Let's have a look at the dominant features of EMUI 9.0:

Source: Huawei Website

The EMUI 9.0 optimizes underlying operation commands more rapidly and efficiently with AI prediction technology. This optimisation means on average, the system response speed is increased by 25.8%, application startup is shortened by 102 ms and overall system fluency is increased by 12.9%.

Gaming with GPU 2.0:

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One of the most prominent feature in EMUI 9.0 is the introduction of GPU Turbo 2.0 technology that advances the gaming experience to a whole new level. The AI predictive resource allocation and intelligent scheduling, efficiently improves game fluency and lowers touch delays by an average of 36%1. Games will run smooth and cool with advanced temperature control that decreases hot spots temperature on the screen by a maximum of 3.6°C.

Wireless Projecting:

Wirelessly project your presentations to the big screen. In PC mode, you can use the graffiti pen to write notes, leave remarks and make screenshots during the meeting. Any incoming phone calls or messages will be hidden from the big screen. Enjoy showing your ideas with coworkers and sharing the videos with your family effortlessly.

HiVision:

While travelling, scan landmarks or paintings with HiVision and it will tell you the history. Also, while eating at local restaurants, you can translate the foreign language menu in real-time. HiVision can also measure food calories with volume estimation to keep your diet healthy.

HUAWEI Share:

EMUI 9.0 makes printing files a lot easier with HUAWEI Share. Now you can click one button to print3. No more cables and extra devices.

Phone Clone:

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Once you have your new HUAWEI phone, HUAWEI Phone Clone easily helps you switch all your contacts, apps and photos to your new device quickly with EMUI 9.0. A fast transfer with an easy set up and you are ready to enjoy your new phone.

Gestures:

The Gesture control on EMUI 9.0 has been improved significantly

Password Vault:

With Password Vault the Logins for applications are safe in an encrypted can only be accessed with your Fingerprint, Face ID or lock code. You won’t need to remember passwords for your accounts anymore and you are still secure.

Multiple Back Up Options:

With multiple back up options your data is more secure and accessible than ever before. Back up your data to a USB, SD Card or through a network-attached storage (NAS).

8. Emotion UI 9.1:

EMUI 9.1 is the improved version on EMUI 9.0, with extra feature. Huawei released EMUI 9.1 in June 2019. Here is the list of top features of Huawei’s EMUI 9.1 update:

GPU Turbo 3.0:

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It offers a smoother gaming experience and better battery performance. Since the first announcement of GPU Turbo feature last year, it has been upgraded many times.

New EROFS file system:

This EMUI version comes with a new EROFS (Extendable Read-Only File System) file system, which helps to increase the smoothness of Huawei phones. Previously, the F2FS file system was tailored for flash memory to improve the read and write performance after long-term use. Now, with EROFS, the random read speed will be 20% faster and the system space will provide extra personal storage of up to 1,000 pictures or 500 songs. Plus, the read-only memory design isolates outside interference for added security in your system files.

VLOG:

Vlog has new effects and features that are flawless tools for easy editing and you can share with a single touch.The Highlight videos are automatically edited with dramatic filters and gives you the option to apply special speed effects and unique background music. Your cherished videos can be transformed into a personal cinematic masterpiece.

OneHop:

A simple tap from your phone to the computer can send pictures, videos and documents in seconds.You can also efficiently copy and paste between devices with HUAWEI Share OneHop. And, while playing a game, just shake and touch the phone to your computer to initiate a 60-second recording of the screen that saves to your phone.

Car key:

The phone turns into car key to open the door. It is currently available in Audi 7 models.

Open Settings

Go to Device connectivity > NFC

Enable NFC

Set Default payment app to your automobile manufacturer’s app.

How to unlock a Car:

You need only hold your Huawei device near the car’s door handle to unlock it. To unlock your car, hold the NFC area of your Phone near your car’s door handle. The screen can be on or off.

AR measurement:

The mobile can directly measure area, volume, length, height and many more.You can accurately measure length, total area and volume with the HUAWEI TOF Camera. By utilizing the Face Recognition technology, you can now measure the height of a person with just a simple task of scanning from toe-to-head.

Phone Clone:

You can quickly transfer your photos, contacts, videos and many other things to your new device in few seconds.

9. Emotion UI 10.0:

On August 9, Huawei held the HDC2019 Huawei Developer Conference in which Yu Chengdong, president of Huawei’s consumer business, officially released the Hongmeng operating system. Subsequently, Wang Chenglu, president of Huawei’s consumer BG software division, officially released Huawei EMUI 10 Features.

Now that EMUI 10 has been launched on wide variety of devices, we can look into some of the most exciting features of EMUI 10:

Brand New Look:

Key changes in EMUI 10 focus on improving the look and feel of the operating system. Huawei has broken this down into four main categories — the new Magazine Design philosophy, a low saturation color palette, enhanced Dark Mode, and improved natural animations. We’ll get to all of them in time, but let’s start with the cosmetic changes.

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EMUI 10 retains a familiar look and feel to its past few versions. The desktop drawer, flexible navigation options, and various menus all retain that familiar Huawei aesthetic. You will notice a few icon changes here and there but nothing drastically different in that department.

There’s now much more white space around headers and title texts, such as the clock and date in the quick settings menu and the icons in the notification bar. This extends throughout Huawei’s apps, including email, contacts, and even the options in the settings menu are separated by a tad more space. There’s also more space around notifications too, so they’re not as tightly crammed together as in previous versions.

This new color palette was invented by George Morandi, the famous Italian painter, and comprises of soft subtle colors over a light grey background. In the contacts app, contacts without a picture are given one of the six soft color tones instead.

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Fluid animations:

Another cosmetic change in EMUI 10 is the introduction of more “natural” animations. For example, pressing a button or object it depresses it down into the screen before springing up. Larger objects appear to spring back up with more force. It’s pretty cool to watch, but I get the feeling not too many people will notice. Which maybe is the point after all?

Huawei has also improved the animation transitions between apps. The frame rate of these transitions has increased, smoothing out their appearance and reducing any appearance of lag. There’s also a cool “Projectile Motion” animation when exiting an app, where you can move the window around the screen and watch it fly back towards the home screen app icon.

The UI seems to be very responsive with EMUI 10 and that is why EMUI 10 is a big upgrade from EMUI 9.1

Enhanced Dark Mode:

Huawei Launched the Dark Mode option back with EMUI 9 but there were some issues, as some of the apps were not optimized enough to handle the Dark Mode. EMUI 10 solve all those issues. Although Dark Mode is one of the main features of EMUI 10 but Huawei has even outperformed the Dark mode implementation than Stock Android Smartphones.

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Huawei’s Dark Mode applies not just to the OS UI but also to its pre-installed apps. This includes email, contacts, clock, photos, notes, etc.

Camera:

Huawei is well known for its smartphone camera prowess and it appears that a number of new features and tweaks are heading to the camera app in EMUI 10 as well.

A few UI changes caught my eye, including a simple black background, reworked zoom slider, and an AI toggle button. The Aperture shooting mode now also lists the level of bokeh blur by f-stop rather than just a number.

You also get a gyroscopic stabilization assistive grid when you turn on the assistive grid while making a video. This helps a lot if you want to shoot a steady and stable video.

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The biggest change though is the introduction of new color grading options. The old Standard, Vivid, and Smooth options have been replaced by your choice of 11 new filters. These still include the three original options, now with Leica branding, while also offering monochrome and other color palettes. Other manufacturers have provided a wide range of shooting profiles for a while now, so it’s nice to see Huawei expanding its options too.

10. Emotion UI 10.1:

Huawei released its Flagship P40 series with the all new EMUI 10.1 Software on 26th March 2020. Surprisingly EMUI 10.1 came with lots of newly added features. Although most of the improvements were made in the Camera Department.

Let's take a look at the main features of EMUI 10.1:

Golden Snap:

One of the coolest and my favorite feature of EMUI 10.1, by using the Golden Snap feature you can remove the nearby character/people.

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sWs_Cf0hSY[/YOUTUBE]​

Mobile Office Multi-screen Collaboration:

Huawei EMUI 10.1 brings a new way of sharing and collaboration, all you need is just tap the Huawei Share button/icon from the navigation as shown in the image below.

No compression and no data consumption.

● It supports a notification center in the corner of the device.

● With a simple tap, smartphones and computers converge instantly

● Drag and drop text instantly.

MeeTime High-Quality Communication:

If you fancy Google Duo or Apple's Facetime but love Huawei handsets, you are in for a treat as Huawei has just launched MeeTime that connects you with your family and friends at any time and anywhere with high-quality video calls, even in low-light or poor network conditions. All you need is to select MeeTime app

Hey Celia: Huawei New Voice Assistant:

After Huawei was restricted to use Google Play Services, it came up with a new home backed Voice Assistant "Hey Celia".

To activate the voice assistant, you just have to say "Hey Celia" and you are ready to give commands to the Huawei Voice Assistant

Wireless Sound Transmission:

Although this feature hasn't been officially confirmed yet but according to Weibo blogger, Huawei 40 series phones support wireless sound transmission

After turning on, the external sound can be transmitted from the mobile phone to the Bluetooth headset or Bluetooth speaker in real-time.

Gallery: Single search, Multiple devices, New distributed file system:

We live in a world where we are used to using multiple devices for multiple tasks, depending on what task is at hand. Reading a book on a Tablet might be better than reading it on your Smartphone or your Laptop, similarly, taking photos is easy with a Smartphone instead of a tablet.

Furthermore, our devices have limited storage space, so we might move a few files (including images) from one device to another to free up some storage space but in some cases this becomes nightmare if you are unable to find your required image.

Luckily Huawei has developed a solution for that and EMUI 10.1 is implementing it:

You can access your photo gallery on any of your devices like Huawei’s vision or a MatePad as shown in the image below. When it connected to the same home Wi-Fi network, you can also quickly search crossed devices and instantly share your images.

Here are a few more noticeable features of EMUI 10.1:

● Huawei New Themes

● New Vibrant AOD

● 3D Rendered AOD – Low power consumption

● UI More Smooth

● Convenient Multi-Window – (Drag & Drop Easily & Smooth)

● More Secure

Here is the Huawei EMUI versions release dates if you are interested in that as well:

(This article was first published on Huawei Global Community)

Source: Following websites attributed to my detailed article on Huawei EMUI History: HuaweiCentral, AndroidCentral, Humariweb, Unboxcell, AndroidAuthority, Huawei Official Website,huaweiupdate, sparrowsnews