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Huawei

Guides for Huawei Y3 (2017)

471 guides

Language & Input

Change Keyboard Layout

If your Huawei phone types in QWERTY when you expect QWERTZ, or French input still lands on AZERTY-standard keys, the SwiftKey keyboard is using the wrong layout for that language. Each keyboard language on EMUI can carry its own layout, and switching the input language does not automatically switch the layout with it. This mismatch shows up most when typing accented characters or symbols that sit in different spots across QWERTZ, AZERTY, QWERTY, Dvorak, Colemak, and QZERTY.

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Calls & Messages

Show Alternate Calendars in the Calendar App

If your Calendar app only shows Gregorian dates, religious or cultural holidays like Islamic, Hebrew, or Chinese Lunar dates stay invisible next to your regular entries. EMUI hides this option inside the Calendar settings by default, so most users never notice it exists. Adding an alternate calendar shows a second date line under each day without replacing your main calendar.

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Network & Connectivity

Turn Location Access On or Off

If your Huawei phone keeps showing the location icon in the status bar even though you are not navigating or checking in anywhere, general location access is probably switched on for every app at once. This master switch overrides individual app permissions, so weather, maps, and social apps all lose GPS access the moment you turn it off. It is a different setting from disabling location for a single app.

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Network & Connectivity

Simple Contact View

If your contacts list is cluttered with profile pictures, company names and extra fields, scanning for a phone number takes longer than it should. Huawei devices include a simplified view that hides everything except the core details. This is especially useful if you mainly need quick access to numbers rather than full contact cards.

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Other

Select to Speak Setup

If tapping the screen suddenly triggers a spoken read-out of text or images instead of opening an app, Select to Speak is active on your Huawei phone. Many users enable this accessibility feature by accident and then struggle to find where to switch it off again. The toggle sits inside a separate accessibility menu, not in the general sound or display settings.

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Battery & Power

Power Saving Mode: Enable or Disable

If your Huawei phone suddenly delays downloads or holds back new emails, Power Saving mode is probably running in the background. It throttles background activity on purpose to stretch battery life until you can recharge, which can make notifications and app updates feel slower than usual.

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Network & Connectivity

Enable or Disable Background Data and Roaming for Apps

If a messenger like WhatsApp only shows new messages after you open the app, or your data bill spikes right after a trip, background data and roaming permissions for that app are usually the reason. EMUI lets you allow or block both separately for every installed app, so getting the setting wrong means either late notifications or an unexpected roaming charge.

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Calls & Messages

Forward an SMS Message

If you want to pass on a text you received without retyping it, EMUI hides the forward option inside the message menu rather than as a visible button. This is why many Huawei users only send screenshots instead of the actual message.

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Other

Show Certification Logos

If you need the FCC ID or another regulatory marking for your Huawei phone but cannot find it on the box or in the manual, the certification logos are stored on the device itself. Which certificates show up depends on the exact model, so the list can look different from phone to phone. The entry is easy to miss because it sits deep inside the system menu.

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Other

Add or Remove Browser Bookmarks

Losing track of frequently visited pages in the Huawei Browser app is a common annoyance once bookmarks are missing or scattered without order. Without a saved shortcut, you end up retyping URLs or scrolling through browsing history every time you need a page again. The save option sits in a spot many people overlook, and removing old bookmarks later works differently than adding them.

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Notifications & Focus

Enable or Disable Dial Pad Sounds

Every tap on the Huawei dialer can trigger a beep or tone, and that gets annoying fast if you dial numbers in a quiet room or share the phone with someone who hates the noise. The keypad tones setting controls whether you hear anything at all and which tone plays. Switching between None, Default and Melody changes how the phone reacts to every digit you press.

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Notifications & Focus

Assign a Custom Ringtone to a Contact

If every call sounds the same, you always have to glance at the screen to see who is calling. Assigning a personal ringtone to a specific contact lets you recognize important callers by sound alone, even with the phone in your pocket or across the room.

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System & Settings

Change System Navigation Type

If the on-screen buttons at the bottom of your Huawei phone feel cramped, or you keep hitting the back button by accident, the navigation style is worth changing. Huawei phones default to Three-key navigation, but Gestures and the floating NaviDot are also available. Picking the wrong option can interfere with accessibility shortcuts tied to the navigation bar.

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Display & Home Screen

Set Screen Timeout

If your Huawei display locks itself just seconds after you stop tapping it, or stays lit far too long and drains the battery, the Sleep setting is probably not matched to how you use the phone. This value decides when the screen goes into standby, anywhere from 15 seconds to 10 minutes of inactivity. If a password, PIN, or fingerprint is active as the unlock method, every standby also means unlocking again for the next tap.

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Notifications & Focus

Lock Screen Notifications: Show or Hide

Anyone who picks up your Huawei phone can read message previews straight off the lock screen if notifications are set to show full content. That becomes a problem on shared desks, in meetings, or whenever you hand the phone to someone else for a moment. Huawei lets you keep alerts visible while hiding the actual text, or turn lock screen notifications off entirely.

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Network & Connectivity

Reset Network Settings

If WLAN keeps dropping, mobile data refuses to reconnect after switching networks, or Bluetooth pairings act up for no clear reason, a stuck network configuration is usually behind it. Resetting network settings wipes WLAN profiles, mobile data setups and Bluetooth pairings so the phone rebuilds them from scratch. On Dual SIM phones you also get to pick which SIM card the reset applies to.

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Notifications & Focus

Turn Alarm On or Off

If your alarm doesn't ring in the morning, chances are the switch got flipped off by accident, not the alarm itself getting deleted. Huawei phones keep every alarm you set stored in the Clock app, so you never have to rebuild the same wake-up time from scratch. Knowing exactly where that switch sits saves you from re-entering the time, label, and repeat days over and over.

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Other

Quick Prediction Insert: Enable or Disable

If Huawei's SwiftKey keyboard inserts a suggested word the moment you tap the space bar, quick prediction insert is active. This happens before you finish typing the word yourself, which can break sentences you did not mean to autocomplete. The feature only works when autocorrect is turned on.

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Battery & Power

Show Battery Percentage

If your status bar only shows a plain battery icon with no numbers, you are left guessing how much charge your Huawei phone has left. EMUI hides the exact battery percentage by default and only displays a rough fill level. Turning this option on replaces the guesswork with a precise readout right in the status bar.

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Network & Connectivity

Enable or Disable Auto-Download Updates over WiFi

If your Huawei phone keeps grabbing software updates the moment it connects to WiFi, storage fills up before you even decide to install anything. On the other hand, if updates never seem to download on their own, this WiFi-only auto-download setting is usually the reason. Either way, the update only gets fetched, not installed, until you confirm it.

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Security & Privacy

Enable or Disable Google Play Protect

If Google Play Protect keeps flagging a trusted app as harmful or blocks an install you actually want, the scanner is doing exactly what it's built for on your Huawei phone. It checks every app during and after download and rechecks apps from unknown sources on a schedule, then notifies you when it finds a risk. Switching it off stops the warnings, but it also removes that ongoing background scan from your device.

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Calls & Messages

Assign a Picture to a Contact

If a contact still shows a generic icon instead of a photo when they call or text you, no picture has been linked to that entry yet. Huawei lets you attach either an existing photo from your gallery or a freshly taken picture to any saved contact. Without this link, calls and messages stay visually anonymous even after all other details have been saved.

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Security & Privacy

Enable Emergency SOS Messages

If a Huawei phone does not send your location to trusted contacts during an emergency, the SOS message option under Security is probably switched off. Pressing the power button five times in a row is meant to trigger a call and an SOS text, but that only works once emergency contacts are saved and the message option is active. Without a saved contact list, the call still goes through, but no location text gets sent.

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Language & Input

Change SwiftKey Keyboard Theme

Stuck with the plain gray SwiftKey keyboard on your Huawei phone and want something with more color or a gradient background? The default look only changes the background and key colors, not the layout or key size, and the theme option is easy to miss inside the input settings.

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