Change Home Screen Layout
If your Huawei phone only shows a 4x6 icon grid, you might be running out of room for apps without extra scrolling. Huawei lets you switch to a denser 5x5 or 5x6 layout on many models, but the exact options depend on the phone you own. Some devices show fewer grid choices or hide the setting under a slightly different name.
Delete an Alarm
Old wake-up times and one-off alarms pile up fast in the Clock app, and after a while it gets hard to tell which alarm actually still matters. On Huawei phones the alarm list keeps every entry active until you remove it, so a changed shift or a one-time early flight can leave you with several alarms firing at the wrong time. Clearing out the ones you no longer need keeps the list readable and stops accidental wake-ups.
Disable Google Assistant from the Home Button
On many Huawei phones, long-pressing the virtual home button launches Google Assistant even when you never meant to open it. This shortcut is controlled through the Assist app setting, not through the Google app itself. If the overlay keeps popping up during normal navigation, you can switch the shortcut off completely.
Quick Settings: Manage Toggles
If NFC, mobile data or the flashlight toggle keep disappearing from your Quick Settings, the panel setup needs adjusting rather than the swipe gesture. Huawei phones only show a limited set of switches by default, so frequently used ones can end up missing. This slows down access to functions you'd normally toggle in one move.
Remove App from Folder
If you tucked an app into a folder on your Huawei home screen and now open it every day, digging through the folder each time gets old fast. EMUI does not force you to keep an app buried once it turns out you use it constantly. Moving it back out only takes a drag, as long as there is open space on the home screen to drop it.
Clear Browsing History in the Browser App
If your Huawei browser keeps suggesting sites you visited weeks ago, the address bar is pulling from stored browsing history. Clearing it removes every visited page from the record, not just a single suggestion.
Enable or Disable Call Forwarding
By default, your Huawei phone forwards calls according to your carrier's standard settings, not your own preferences. Calls might get diverted whenever your line is busy, goes unanswered or your device is unreachable, even if you never asked for that behavior. Each of these three forwarding conditions can be switched on or off separately.
Enable or Disable Airplane Mode
When airplane mode is switched on, your Huawei phone drops every connection at once, including mobile network, mobile data, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Calls, texts and data transfers stop working until you turn it off again. This mode is meant for flights, but it also gets triggered by accident through quick settings or after a restart.
Enable or Disable Automatic Network Selection
If your Huawei phone stopped connecting to your provider's standard network after you searched for a carrier manually, automatic network selection is likely turned off. Without it, the phone stays locked to the network you picked by hand, even once a stronger or cheaper connection becomes available. Switching it back on lets the phone pick the best network on its own again.
Move a Widget on the Home Screen
When a widget lands in an awkward spot on your Huawei home screen, it can block app icons or throw off your layout. Many people assume they have to remove the widget and add it again to fix its position. The widget can actually be repositioned directly, without deleting it first.
Enable or Disable Notification Dots per App
App icons on your Huawei phone showing a small dot or a number even after you have already read every message usually means the notification dot indicator is still active for that app. This indicator works separately from the notification itself and separately from Do Not Disturb or Focus mode. Some apps also let you switch between a plain dot and an exact unread count, which changes how busy your home screen looks.
Turn a Keyboard Language On/Off
If your SwiftKey keyboard lists several downloaded languages, switching between them with a swipe gets slower and the layout selector gets crowded. Deactivating a language you rarely use keeps the switcher clean without deleting the language data, so you don't have to redownload it later.
Stopwatch: Start, Lap and Reset
If you need lap times on your Huawei phone, the Clock app's stopwatch often gets confused with the timer. It can record a single lap or several laps in a row, not just stop the clock once. Missing the right tap for lap tracking versus a full reset usually means a lost lap history.
Check for Software Updates
If your Huawei phone hasn't shown a notification about a new version, you could still be missing a fix or feature that already rolled out. Update alerts on EMUI often depend on background checks that get delayed by network conditions or staged rollouts. Checking the update status yourself confirms whether a new version is actually available for your device.
Change SIM PIN
A new SIM card usually ships with a default PIN that nobody remembers for long. On a Huawei phone that factory PIN stays active until you replace it with your own code. Enter it wrong three times in a row and the SIM locks itself, so it is worth setting a PIN you actually recognize before that happens.
Enable or Disable Three-Finger Screenshot
If a swipe with three fingers randomly captures a screenshot while you are scrolling or gaming, the gesture control on your Huawei phone is likely reacting to accidental touches. The same setting also decides whether the shortcut works at all when you actually want to use it.
Remove Google Search Bar from Home Screen
Right after setting up a new Huawei phone, a Google search bar sits fixed on the home screen and eats up space you could use for apps or a wallpaper. Many people try to drag it away like a normal icon and end up moving other widgets instead. It behaves like a widget, so it needs the same long-press-and-remove approach, not a simple delete swipe.
Share Contacts as QR Code, vCard or Text
Typing a phone number by hand often creates a typo, and reading a name out loud rarely transfers the full address book entry. Huawei phones offer three separate ways to send a saved contact, and picking the wrong one means the recipient gets an unreadable file or misses details like the company name or a second phone number.
Reject an Incoming Call
A call rings right when you are in a meeting or a conference and picking up is not an option. On Huawei phones you decline it with a single gesture on the lock screen, without unlocking the device or digging into any menu.
Take a Photo with the Camera App
New Huawei phones open with a camera app full of modes, filters and small icons, so the actual shutter button often gets lost in the clutter. If you have already focused and zoomed but nothing happens when you tap the screen, you are probably tapping the wrong spot instead of the shutter release.
Enable or Disable Screen Magnification
Reading small text or icons on your Huawei phone strains your eyes when the display stays at default zoom. The Magnification feature works like a digital magnifying glass, letting you zoom in and out with a quick triple-tap on the screen. If that shortcut stops responding or you simply want to switch it off, the toggle lives inside the Accessibility settings.
Number Position in Number & Symbols Keyboard Layout
Switching to the number and symbol layout on a Huawei keyboard usually puts every digit in one row at the top, mixed in with punctuation. That works for quick typing, but it slows you down when you enter phone numbers, PINs or amounts often. SwiftKey Keyboard lets you swap that row for a numeric keypad instead, aligned to the left or right side of the screen.
Show or Hide Public Holidays in Calendar
If your Huawei calendar is cluttered with public holidays you never asked for, or missing the ones for your own country, the Calendar app treats national and regional holidays as separate settings. Some users only want to turn off regional dates while keeping national holidays visible, which is not obvious from the main calendar view. The toggle sits inside the app settings rather than the calendar display itself.
Enable or Disable Auto-align
On Huawei phones, deleting an app can trigger auto-align, which shifts every remaining icon to close the empty spot it left behind. If you have arranged apps in a specific order or grouped them by page, this automatic re-sorting can undo that layout without any extra confirmation.