Everyone knows Huawei flagship phones have top-notch cameras, displays and battery life. Specs aside, though, you might not know just how much you can actually do with EMUI. Ever swiped right from your main homescreen? If the answer's no, set aside 20 minutes and get stuck in with the Huawei Assistant; you won't be disappointed.
What is the Huawei Assistant?
It's a one-stop shop that's designed to bring you everything you need from your apps and files, without you needing to go searching for them. In other words, a virtual personal assistant that puts an end to settings sucking up all your time. And, of course, everything's powered by AI.
There's a smarter search box, AI Search, which trawls both the local contents of your phone and the entire internet. Then there's Instant Access shortcuts to your four most-used apps and services. AI Tips pop up with contextual info when you need it.
And the Newsfeed gives you real-time news at a glance from trusted sources including the BBC, The Independant and The Guardian with the option to see curated news video and podcasts in the mix via a choice of aggregators of MSN News and Squid News. All in all, the Huawei Assistant will fast become the most productive screen on your phone.
What are AI Tips?
When you add cards for companies that are partnering with Huawei, you can get even smarter, context-sensitive alerts and reminders with AI Tips. So if you use the popular shopping list app Listonic, for instance, you can set it up to suggest recipe and grocery hacks and tips as you plan your weekly shop – right there in the Huawei Assistant screen.
You can also follow specific sports teams and events to see live scores in your feed, thanks to Enetpulse, and quickly check everything from today's events to app usage and the weather. AI Tips appear automatically just below your Instant Access apps, so you don't miss them.
How to get started
It's simple. Just download the latest EMUI 10.0 update to your device to get the Assistant and AI Tips - you can see the rollout plan for devices in Europe here. Stuck? Check out Huawei's quick YouTube tutorial so you can see what the setup should look like.
The AI Tips to try first
Some of the most useful cards to add to your AI Tips notifications are eSky and TeleTrader; both of which show off the power of the platform. With eSky, you can see flight deals from 900 airlines as well as offers for hotels and car rental bookings, and all the essential info for your upcoming flights.
TeleTrader, meanwhile, allows you to keep an eye on your favourite stocks and stock market trends with real-time financial news and analysis from 100 exchanges, covering all global markets. Seriously clever.
Which Huawei models can use AI Tips?
Huawei Assistant and AI Tips come pre-installed on this year's flagship P40 and P40 Pro as well as the Mate 30/Mate 30 Pro, but the big news is that with the new EMUI update, Huawei isn't holding out on owners of its earlier models, as it's also available on 17 Huawei and Honor phones from recent years.
So if you have a P20 or P20 Pro, P30, P30 Pro or P30 Lite or even the affordable Huawei P Smart 2019 you're good to go with the new features - just download the new EMUI update. To activate the Assistant and to make sure you have the latest version, click here.
Help Huawei to improve Assistant and win a P40 Pro
Once you've tried out the Huawei Assistant and AI Tips on your device, if you submit your feedback on how you accessed the features (i.e. through the EMUI update or by downloading the APP), you can enter your details to win a Huawei P40 Pro.
-- For more information please click here.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
