Huawei Y9 Tips and Tricks
Factory OS: Android 8 (Oreo)
Have you updated your Operating System?
Then view tips for the most recent OS version(s): Android 9 (Pie)
Or view tips for all Android versions
If you have used up all of your Quick Launch spaces, then there is a trick.
Once it is full, press and drag an App from the homescreen and move it over the top of an App in the Quick Launch area. Then release your finger. This will create a folder containing the original App plus the new one. This is a great way to have access to regularly used Apps.
Once you have done this grouping, you can give specific name to that folder. For that just open the folder (containing different apps), and tap on Tools tab, and add your desired name.
To lock your screen while you are watching videos, simply press the power button.
This will disable the touchscreen buttons while the video is playing, but it won’t turn the screen off like the lock key normally does.
Note, this will only work on video files that you are playing that are stored on your phone. It won’t work for videos played within websites, such as YouTube videos.
If you regularly visit a website you can add a shortcut to your homescreen which can be quite useful, rather than entering the web address each time you want to visit the site.
You can either do this to an existing Bookmark, or simply a page you’re visiting:
1) Open your Browser App. Enter the website you want to bookmark. You may need to wait for the whole page to load first. Then press the phone’s Menu button or More at the top and select Add shortcut to home screen.
2) Open your Browser App. Find an existing Bookmark by pressing the Bookmarks icon at the bottom of the App. Select the Bookmark and repeat the above steps.
If you want to install Apps outside of the Play Store (called sideloading), then go to Settings – Personal – Lock screen and security and select Unknown sources.
This setting will allow you to download Apps onto your device that would normally be blocked in the Play store.
Note: use at your own risk.
If you want to go to settings, then you can go to your list of Apps and open the Settings App.
There is however a quicker way. Simply position your finger right at the top of the screen and drag it down. You may need to do this twice on some phones.
Your notification bar will appear and you can then press the small Gear icon at the top of the screen to go to the Settings.
Sometimes while typing long text or SMS messages you will get a message saying Converting to multimedia message. This won’t normally cause a problem, however some users do not want to send a MMS message.
There are a number of different settings to deal with this, however there isn’t really a way to prevent the phone from converting to an MMS. The reason for this is that any message over 480 characters cannot be sent as an SMS message. They must be sent as an MMS. The is a restriction of SMS messages in general, similar to the original limit of 160 characters.
What you can do however is ensure you get alerted when you have reached 480 characters. Then you can decide to send the message as an SMS and continue your conversation on a second message.
To check this setting is on, open your Message App and press More – Settings and More Settings – Multimedia messages. Then select Set restrictions and choose Warning. You will now be told when your message is being converted to MMS.
You can also change the settings for Creation mode which lets you restrict messages that go over a certain size. If you select Warning or Restricted, you should get further warnings when your message is really large and may not be handled by the network.
Note: This availability of this feature depends on your device.
There is a hidden Android Easter egg on the phone that Google has built into your device.
Go to Settings. Then scroll down to About device. Then tap on the Android version option 5 times.
Once you see something on the screen, you can then rub the screen with your finger to produce another surprise. If rubbing doesn’t work then try tapping with your finger. A combination of the above should work.
By the way don’t expect to see an actual Easter Egg. That is just the name given to things hidden inside software or operating systems.
If you find that a particular App is sending you too many notifications, there is a quick way to disable these.
When you receive the notification, pull down the notification screen. Then long press on the notification, then Go to Settings/More Settings, from here you can turn notifications ON or OFF for that particular App.
If you are abroad and don’t want to pay high data roaming charges or travelling to an area with no network coverage, then you can save Google Maps for offline viewing later. Here are two ways to do this:
The first method will depend whether your phone supports it. First, open Google Maps and navigate to a section of the map that you want available offline. Then press on the search bar and scroll right to the bottom and select Make this map area available offline. You may need to repeat this with multiple areas.
Alternatively, open Google Maps and zoom down to street level. Then scroll around area you’ll be travelling too. If you’re visiting a city for example, do this at street level and cover as much area as you think you’ve be visiting. If you’re travelling outside a city, then street level view might be too detailed, so zoom out and just cover the main roads, towns etc.
This will load all the segments into your phone’s cache. Then when have arrived at your destination and you have data turned off, you will see the areas you’ve stored on the phone’s memory.
Note: this won’t give you your GPS location because that normally needs a data connection to pinpoint your position.
If you don’t want to hear the shutter sound when you take photos, then there are a few things you can try.
Firstly, some countries have laws to force the phone to play these sounds. Assuming you’re not in one of these countries, then the first thing you can try is to go to the Camera App – Settings – Shutter Sound – Off.
If that doesn’t work, then you can try turning the volume of the phone down or put it in silent mode when taking photos.
The last option is to Root your phone. If you don’t know what that means, then it’s best not to attempt it unless you have thoroughly read about the process. Once Rooted, go to this folder on your phone: /system/media/audio/ui and rename the camerashutter and/or cameraclick OGG files to something else.
Alternatively, on a rooted phone you can use a Root Browser, to edit /system/csc/feature.xml and set the option to TRUE. Then you should be able to go to Camera App – Settings – Shutter Sound – Off.