With an update in the app gallery, Huawei Assistant is renewed with changes in design and function. Huawei Assistant is not Celia, the home voice assistant, but the screen that appears when you swipe left in Huawei’s default launcher. In other words, the equivalent of Huawei’s Google Now.
In a new attempt to fill the void left by Google services, Huawei’s Launch Assistant screen grabs your attention as a personalized news and information center. We tell you everything you can do with Huawei Assistant on a mobile with EMUI after this update.
Information at a glance
The main reason for the existence of Huawei Assistant is to offer you an alternative to what Google Now was a few years ago: a collection of information and details that might interest you. After the update, the presentation of this information is more attractive, with a customizable design of the different information blocks
The Huawei Assistant includes hours for “essential” information such as upcoming events, weather, milestones, available space and battery information, and package tracking. A lot of this data existed before, but now it behaves like widgets in a kind of cross between the Windows 10 Start menu and iOS 14 widgets: the you can move around and choose between several sizes.
Quick access to applications
In addition to Huawei Assistant, there is a customizable shortcut bar. From the settings, you can add applications, web services and some direct actions in the applications installed on the mobile to this list.
Mobile and web search
Of course, you can’t miss the search bar which, in addition, is twofold: perennial at the top and as a widget. Searching in Huawei Assistant allows you to search both on mobile and on the web, including tabs to differentiate web searches, apps, and videos.
For local search, from the Huawei Assistant settings, you can choose the mobile elements that will be included in the search. Items to choose from include settings, apps in the AppGallery, files, calendar events, contacts, videos in Huawei Video, optimization options, and the web.
News or “discovery” mode
Huawei Assistant borrows from Google’s Discover mode to display news from the web. One of the new things about the latest update is that now this stream goes full screen with a swipe up, and be able to update the news with a swipe to the right.
It is not as customizable a system as the Google version, although you can still show what you are not interested in by closing some news, as well as choose news sources that you want to use to get the content.
Quick access to the QR code reader
Taking into account that Huawei’s assistant is – in those who have activated it – an error, it is a quick way to scan a QR code, because a button is included in the search bar at the top. Press this button to open the camera app in QR code scanning mode.
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