Phandroid: 31+ Honor 6X Tips & Tricks

The Honor 6X is easily one of the best deals you can get for a smartphone. Not only does it offer a good amount of hardware for the money, it's practically packed to the brim with software features. Like the 5X before it, the Honor 6X is all Huawei. That means you'll need to learn the special version of Android it's running, a little something Huawei calls EMUI. If you're new to Huawei or Honor devices — don't worry. This incredibly massive list of tips and tricks will help you get well acquainted with some of the best software features the Honor 6X has to offer.

Start here: 16 things every Honor 6X user should do

Find a lost or stolen phone

It's something nobody thinks about until it happens, but one of the worst things that could happen to you is losing your smartphone or having it stolen. In the event that your device does go missing, you need to know exactly how to recover your device or erase any personal information stored therein.

Android's built-in feature called "Android Device Manager" is the perfect way to track down a lost device, you just need to know where to find it.

Go to google.com/android/devicemanager
Select your phone from the drop-down menu (in the case of the Honor 6X, look for BLN-L24)
You'll see the device on a map and a few options for finding it (ring), locking it (if it wasn't locked already), or erasing all of its contents

Read More: How to find a lost or stolen phone

How to take a screenshot with the Honor 6X

Okay, this ones pretty simple, but for those new to Android will need to learn how to perform one of the most basic, and important, functions of the device: taking a screenshot. It's simple, just press and hold the volume down and power button.

After about 1 second, you'll see an animation and sound letting you know a screenshot was taken, followed by additional options at the bottom of the screenshot to quickly share, edit, or take a "Scrollshot" (scrolling screenshot).

Screenshots will be placed inside of their own Screenshot album inside the Gallery app, where you can edit or share them directly with other apps.

Enable WiFi bridge to extend range throughout your home

Most smartphones have the ability to act as a wireless hotspot, sharing their cellular data connection with others over WiFi. The Honor 6X not only does this, but it also has the ability to act as a WiFi bridge, extending the range of a wireless network with others. Keep in mind the 6X only supports the 2.4GHz WiFi band (sorry, no 5GHz), but that means it'll work fine with all wireless devices (like that PS4 struggling to hold onto WiFi connection in a far off room). Here's how you can turn it on:

Open the Settings app
Tap on More
Tethering & portable hotspot
Tap on Wi-Fi bridge
Tap on the toggle button for Wi-Fi bridge

Some additional things to consider:

Wi-Fi bridge can significantly improve the transmission range and intensity of Wi-Fi signals. Other devices can be connected to your current Wi-Fi network through your device.
Wi-Fi bridge supports access from up to 4 devices.
Wi-Fi bridge does not work with the Wi-Fi hotspot and Wi-Fi Direct features. If Wi-Fi bridge is enabled, some applications that use P2P services may not work properly.
Using Wi-Fi bridge consumes your battery power faster.

Pull up on the lock screen for hidden shortcuts

It's a feature you wouldn't even know existed if you didn't know where too look. Hidden inside the Honor 6X's lockscreen is a slide-out drawer with shortcuts to apps like voice recorder, calculator, and even the flashlight. To pull it up, just swipe up from the Honor logo. You'll want to make sure you use the power button to view your lockscreen — not your fingerprint unlock which will skip the lockscreen entirely.

Change your lock screen wallpapers

This is easily one of the more confusing parts about EMUI 4.1 and that's how they handle lock screen wallpapers. Huawei calls them "Covers" and you'll find options to skip, pause, or rewind your lockscreen wallpaper inside the hidden lockscreen controls (the ones we told you about above).

By default, Covers are hand picked by Huawei and selected at random every time you visit the lockscreen, but if you jump into the Covers app (tap on the button inside the hidden lockscreen controls) you can add new Covers or delete the ones you're not too crazy about.

Another way to view, add, and delete these lockscreen wallpapers is by opening the Gallery app and navigating to the Magazine unlock album. There you delete them like any other photo, or import new photos from another album whether it's photos you've taken yourself, or new wallpapers you've downloaded elsewhere.

Show notifications on the lock screen

One of the better features introduced in Android Marshmallow was lock screen notifications. These would light up the display for a few seconds and show you the most recent notifications directly on the lock screen — you don't even have to touch the phone. For whatever reason, these are not enabled by default on the Honor 6X, but there is a way to turn them on. Here's how:

Open the Settings app
Scroll down and select Screen lock & passwords
Turn OFF "Use password lock only" (don't worry, you'll still need to input a password and/or fingerprint to unlock the device)
Turn ON "Notifications turn on screen" (this will wake your phone for a brief second when notifications are received)
Turn ON "Show detailed notification info" to see the content of notifications on the lockscreen

Use Smart unlock to skip your lockscreen

Although fingerprint unlock is by far the most convenient way to keep your phone secure without having to mess around with PINs or passwords, there's still another way. If for some reason you don't feel like enrolling your fingerprints into the Honor 6X, you can always take advantage of another secure and convenient unlocking method.

It's called Smart unlock and it allows you skip the lockscreen — along with passwords or PINs — whenever a trusted device is connected to your phone. It can be your car's stereo system, a portable speaker, smartwatch, or any other Bluetooth device. Go too far out of range, and your device will once again lock itself down with a password or PIN. Doesn't get much easier than that. Here's how you enable it:

Open the Settings app
Select Screen lock & passwords
Select Smart unlock
Tap on the toggle switch to enable it
Select the desired Bluetooth device you want to skip your lockscreen

Search your entire phone directly from your home screen

Sometimes you want to quickly search your smartphone for an app, or contact and the best way to do that, is directly from your home screen. Simply pull down anywhere on the home screen and begin typing. The Honor 6X will begin showing your results from the different apps installed on your device, along with various contacts (providing you've given the permission to access your contacts).

From there you can tap on the contact to pull up all the info, or select one of the shortcuts to call or message them. For apps, you can tap on the icon to immediately launch the app, or press the location icon where a quick animation will show you exactly where you can find it on your home screen. Since Huawei Home doesn't have an actual app drawer, this could be a great way to locate an app that's shuffled in with all the rest.

Use two SIM cards for double the fun

It will probably be lost on the vast majority of folks, but for those who frequently travel or have need a special business line for work, the Honor 6X features a dual SIM card slot. Just remove the tray by using the included SIM removal tool (or a small paper clip), and insert each SIM into its slot. You can manage the specific settings for each SIM by jumping into your Settings app > Dual SIM management.

Expand your storage using a micro SD card

For those that don't have to worry about carrying two SIM cards (it's a luxury few can afford), the extra slot on the Honor 6X also doubles as a micro SD card slot. This gives you the ability to expand the storage of your device beyond the usual 32GB, supporting micro SD cards up to 256GB. You can use the SD card to store photos, videos, or even apps.

The easiest way to do this is by setting the SD card as the "default storage" — aka, adoptable storage — a feature we saw introduced in Android Marshmallow. Here's how:

Open the Settings app
Scroll down and select Advanced settings
Tap on Memory & storage
Under Storage settings, tap on Default location
Select the name of your SD card

From there you'll see a little warning reminding you that your phone is encrypted and to make sure your SD card is secure before using it as your default storage option. Once you tap on OK, you'll see another popup warning of possible "data leakage" after making the switch to SD card storage. If you're okay with that, select OK and your phone will reboot to finish up transferring everything to your SD card.

Add automatic "Do not disturb" times

Nobody likes being waken up in the middle of the night because they forgot to silence their phone before bed. Thankfully, your Honor 6X is smarter than that. One of the bigger advancements we've seen in Android was when they introduced automatic Do not disturb times. This gives the user the ability to set specific times when your phone will go into DnD mode, allowing only priority notifications like alarms of specific people/situations you've set. Here's where you'll find it:

Open the Settings app
Scroll down to Do not disturb
Select Define priority interruptions – This allows you to choose they types of notifications you still want to hear during DnD. We recommend setting Repeated callers in the event of an emergency and someone is calling you from a different phone number.
Under Automatic rules, turn on either weekends, weeknights, events, or your own custom rule/time.

Change the entire look of your phone with a new theme

You change your outfit everyday, so why not change the look of your smartphone? The Honor 6X makes this easy with their Themes app which can quickly change the entire look of your home screen with new icons and wallpapers.

Just open the Themes app and once you give the app permission to access the SD card (where it will be downloading these themes to), you can choose between Halo, Pink, Gold, and Pure themes. Should you decide to tweak the theme further, selecting the Customize button at the bottom of the screen will allow you to change specific elements like lock screen style, icons, wallpapers, and even the font.

Pinch on your home screen to further customize it

This is how you can shuffle your home screen pages around (long press a page), add new pages, or make any page your default screen by pressing the home icon at the top. You can also customize your home screen by taking advantage of the options at the bottom: wallpaper, widgets, transition animations (when swiping between pages), or even further change the behavior of your home screen by making use of additional settings.

These settings include:

Home layout (grid size)
Auto-align – automatically fill vacancy after you remove an application (like how it works on iOS)
Shake to realign home screen icons
Badge app icons – enable on all supported apps, or turn on/off individually
Home screen loop – allow home screen to loop when swiping past the last page
Auto-rotate – allow your home screen to automatically rotate into portrait or landscape mode

Customize your navigation buttons

The Honor 6X has a ton of ways to customize the UX to better suit each individuals needs, one of those ways is by tweaking the order of the navigation buttons. Android's on-screen nav buttons normally feature the back, home, and recent apps buttons in that specific order, but you can shuffle them around or even add a notification panel button by jumping into the Settings:

Open the Settings app
Scroll down and select Smart assistance
Tap on Navigation bar
Choose desired option

Place the navigation buttons inside a floating dock

It's also in Smart assistance where you'll find the option to enable a floating a dock. The floating dock holds all the same functions as the navigation bar, but you can move it around for optimal placement, where it always anchors itself to the sides of the display to stay out of the way. Unfortunately, the floating dock doesn't remove the navigation buttons, so you'll be stuck using both.

Shrink the display using One-hand UI

Smart assistance is just chock full of handy features, one of those being One-hand UI. Also known as "mini screen view," enabling it will shrink the size of your display, making it much easier to use with one hand. For those with smaller hands, this could be a godsend for those times when your other hand is occupied, whether it's pushing a cart, holding a drink, or hanging onto little Timmy. Once again, you'll find it in Settings > Smart assistance > One-hand UI.

Flip the phone to temporarily mute notifications

Whether you're having a romantic dinner with the Mrs, or curled up on the couch watching a movie, sometimes you just don't want any interruptions from the outside world — that includes your smartphone. You can always unlock the phone and use the volume buttons to silence your device, forgetting to re-enable your volume settings can be a big headache.

An easy way to silence your phone temporarily is by taking advantage of the Honor 6X's Motion Gestures. Also known as flip-to-mute, resting your Honor 6X face down on the screen will tell your device to mute all sounds and stop the vibration motor from buzzing when receiving calls and/or alarms/timers.

Flipping your device over again, will deactivate this feature, allowing all audible notifications to come through. It can be pretty convenient during meetings or when watching a movie.

You can find flip-to-mute by opening the Settings app > Smart assistance > Motion Controls > Flip > toggle on/off.

Turn on fingerprint shortcuts and gestures

Huawei is actually one of the first Android manufacturers to pioneer the use of gestures using the fingerprint sensor on their devices. Like the honor 5X before it, the Honor 6X also features a variety of shortcuts and gestures and you can find them in the Settings > Fingerprint ID.

The main categories are a touch and hold gesture for things like taking a photo/video while in the camera app, answering a call when the phone rings, or stopping the alarm when it goes off. There are also slide gestures that can be activated by swiping a finger over the fingerprint sensor and activates functions like pulling down the notification panel by swiping down, or browsing photos by swiping left/right.

Add a guest account before letting someone borrow your phone

With all the information we have stored on our smartphones, it can be a uncomfortable experience to simply allow someone borrow your phone to pay a bill or research something online. For those times when someone may need to use your phone for an extended amount of time Guest mode on the Honor 6X is the perfect way to give someone their own space, while keeping all the personal content on your device private. Here's how you turn it on:

Open the Settings app
Scroll down and select Users
Tap on Add Guest at the bottom

To allow phone calls (a big reason why someone may want to use your phone), tap on the newly created Guest user and select "Allow calls and sharing of communication history." Just know that this option will merge your call history, allowing either user to see the entire call log.

While in Guest mode, the Honor 6X essentially starts as a completely new device. There's no lockscreen password, apps, or even Google accounts tied to the Guest account, meaning your personal messages, photos, downloads — everything — will be kept safe and away from prying eyes.

Even if you're not sure you'll be using Guest user anytime soon, you may want to add the User now and have it ready for those times when someone needs to quickly borrow your smartphone. Why not?

Turn off that annoying Power-intensive prompt

While the software on the Honor 6X (officially known as EMUI) has plenty of features to take advantage of, it goes a little overboard in its effort to warn users about apps that may be consuming too much battery. EMUI calls them "power intensive" applications and we found that often times it's simply referring to apps we're frequently using. So, yeah. Of course they're consuming battery. Thanks.

Although we appreciate the warning, it begins to pester you and closing these apps out can do more harm than good. Our advice? Stop being paranoid about all you apps, and just turn off those darn "power intensive" warnings altogether. Here's how:

Open the Settings app
Select Advanced settings
Select Battery manager
Tap on the gear icon (upper right)
Turn off Power-intensive prompt

Should ever feel like your battery life has suddenly taken a hit (or perhaps you just want to keep a close eye on things), Android already has a tool built-in to see how much battery your apps are using. You can find it by going into Settings > Consumption level and tapping on the Software drop down to reveal which apps are using the most battery on your phone. You should only freak out if you see an app you don't use very often (or at all) near the top of the list. But if it's something you're using all the time (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), it makes sense that it will be at the top, so don't stress out.

Avoid the Phone Manager app / Optimize tool like the plague

Like on other devices, the Honor 6X also includes Huawei's special Optimize tool as a part of EMUI 4.1. It can be found in a few places, both in the Battery manager settings and the Phone Manager app. We recommend staying far away from this "feature" as it will only recommend you turn off core features of your phone — things like WiFi, mobile data, auto-sync, and even auto-rotate — in order to "optimize" the device for battery savings. Might as well just shut the entire phone down, right?

Because nobody likes having a handicapped phone, avoid this feature like the plague. That is unless you want your shiny new smartphone to act more like a dumbphone.

Stop the background app killing madness

It probably sounds like a good idea on the surface, but killing off background apps on your phone actually does much more harm than good. Normally your phone will close apps on its own, but only as you open new apps and RAM starts to run low. Closing them manually — or worse, every time you turn off the display — is not only overkill, but a huge inconvenience, often times requiring more CPU to reopen and load these apps all over again.

You can stop the madness by taking advantage of a EMUI feature called "Protected apps." These are apps you can white list so the phone's software doesn't close them whenever you turn off the display. Here's where you'll find it:

Open the Settings app
Scroll down and select Advanced settings
Tap on Battery manager
Tap on Protected apps
Turn ON Protect all

Although all currently installed apps will now be protected, you'll need to make sure to come back and protect new apps installed from the Google Play Store. Each and every time. It's kind of annoying that the "Protect all" settings don't stick, but this should be fixed in a future version of EMUI.

Show the battery percentage inside the battery icon

It's no secret that the Honor 6X delivers some pretty great battery life, but sometimes you want to see exactly how much juice you have left throughout the day. You know, more than just a vague, slowly depleting battery icon.

The good news is with the flip of a switch, you can embed a battery percentage right into the battery icon on your status bar. Here's how:

Open the Settings app
Select Notification panel & status bar
Toggle on Remaining battery percentage
Optional: Battery percentage > Next to battery icon or In battery icon

While you're there, you may want to turn off Display carrier name as well. Chances are, you already know which carrier you're with and don't need it spelled it 24/7 on your status bar where it just clutters things up.

Schedule automatic times to power on/off

It doesn't happen often, but overtime you may notice instances of your phone acting up. Whether it's a camera app that refuses to launch correctly, or other general weirdness, sometimes a simple reboot is all it takes to get everything back to tip top shape. To avoid doing this during inopportune times, you can actually schedule the Honor 6X to power off/on on its own. Here's how:

Open the Settings app
Scroll down and select Smart assistance
Tap on Scheduled power on and off
Set desired schedule for power on and off times

Turn on Eye Comfort for better nighttime reading

Whether you're replying to a last minute email in bed, or or just trying to catch up on the day's social media posts, there have been plenty of studies showing the negative impact viewing your smartphone at night can have on your body's own natural sleep cycle. It has to do with the blue light emitted from the display that makes your brain think it's still daytime hours and as a result, produces less melatonin: your body's own natural sleep aid.

We've seen smartphone OEMs combat this by adding a feature that changes the tint of your smartphone display, removing that harsh blue light for something a little warmer and more sleep-friendly. Similar to Night Shift on the iPhone, the Honor 6X has a feature they call "Eye comfort." Located in the Settings > Display, it's there you can further adjust the warmth of the display and even set automatic schedules to have it activate based on the time.

Remove the carrier name from appearing in your status bar

With all the social networks, emails, and messages hitting our devices every few minutes, the status bar can quickly become cluttered with notification icons. The last thing you probably need is constant reminder of which network you're currently on, just taking up valuable space. You can easily turn off your carrier's name from appearing in the status bar by following these steps:

Open the Settings app
Select Notification panel & status bar
Turn off Display carrier name

How to change your Honor 6X home screen

Should you find the Honor 6X's default home screen app — also known as the launcher — not to your liking, like most things on Android… you can change it. There are hundreds of 3rd party home screen apps available on the Google Play Store, one of our favorites being the standard Google Now Launcher. It's free, gives you instant access to Google Now, and even has an app drawer.

Once downloaded, you'll need to tell EMUI exactly which home app you'll be using. You can find the home chooser here:

Open the Settings app
Scroll down and select Apps
Tap on Advanced (gear icon)
Tap on Default app settings
Tap on Launcher
Choose desired app
You'll receive a "warning" notification trying to scare you into sticking with Huawei Home. Select CHANGE
Enjoy your new home app!

How to change your Honor 6X keyboard

Changing your keyboard is essential to the Android experience. Everybody has their favorite and while usually it's as easy as downloading your favorite from the Google Play Store, should you decide to change things up and switch to another, you need to know how to do just that.

Open the Settings app
Scroll down and select Advanced settings
Tap on Language & input
Tap on Default keyboard
The Select input method menu will appear
Select desired keyboard app

If a recently installed keyboard app isn't showing up in this list, you may need to turn it on first by selecting "Configure input methods" and turning ON the keyboard app. From there, just press the back button and repeat steps 4-6 and you should see the keyboard app as an available option.

Use wide aperture mode to create a shallow depth of field

The Honor 6X is one of the most affordable smartphones equipped with a dual camera system. This gives the phone the ability to produce some pretty neat camera tricks, one of those being the phone's digital Wide Aperture mode.

This produces a shallow depth of field when taking pictures of nearby objects, as long as it's less than 6 feet away. The results are something closer to what you'd see from a DSLR, with the benefit of being able to change the focus of a photo inside the Gallery app after the fact.

Become a pro photographer with manual mode

Should you decide you need a little extra control over the camera app, the Honor 6X also features a Pro photo mode with full manual controls. This will give you the ability to adjust camera settings like metering, ISO, shutter speed, exposure, focus, and white balance.

The vast majority of folks wont ever need this level of control, but if the auto camera settings aren't behaving, this is a great way to take control over things.

Take the Perfect Selfie

Tapping on the circular arrow icon in the upper right corner of the camera app will switch to Honor's 8MP front facing camera. Right away, you'll need to choose between two different modes — Perfect Selfie and Standard Beauty — each of which offers varying intensities of the beautifying effect found on many other devices. Of course, you may want to make a note to turn off beauty mode if you find the results a little too… artificial.

Should you mess up Perfect Selfie (there's some set up that involves taking multiple photos from different angles), simply swipe left and pull up the camera settings. From there, tap on Perfect selfie and then Edit personal info to go through the setup process again.

Factory reset

Whether you're looking to sell your phone to another party, or just trying to start fresh, a factory reset allows you to erase everything on your device and start over. The process is easy, but keep in mind there is no going back after a factory reset is complete. You'll want to make sure all important files backed up before proceeding.

Go to Settings > Advanced Settings
Scroll down to Backup & reset
Select Factory data reset
At the bottom, there is a checkbox for Erase internal storage (uncheck if you'd like to keep photos, music, etc.)
Select Reset phone
Enter your PIN or password (if you have one)
Select Reset phone

After that, the Honor 6X will reboot and start from the original setup wizard. Just like when you first took it out of the box.

Customize your phone with our hand-picked wallpapers

Although the Honor 6X has a handful of great wallpapers they offer out of the box, you could always use a few more. If you're looking for some new ones to plaster on your home screen, you may want to check out Phandroid's Android Wallpaper series. It's there you'll find the best wallpapers handpicked by us, usually with a different theme. Here are some of our other favorites:

Download the Best Android Apps & Games

As great as the OnePlus 3 is, it would be pretty boring without a bunch of great apps and games. Here at Phandroid, we are constantly trying to showcase the best apps and games. We've published numerous lists for a wide variety of apps and games. Before you dive into the Play Store and blindly look around, check out these lists.

Start here: 100 Best Android Apps of 2016

Join the Honor 6X community at AndroidForums

We covered a lot of ground here, but we're only getting started. Although tutorials like this can be nice, sometimes to the best place to learn more about your brand new smartphone is by talking with others at AndroidForums. It's there you'll find brand new users like yourself, or even prospective buyers sharing their thoughts, experiences, or concerns they have with the Honor 6X It could be the best place to gain some knowledge and although there isn't much chatter right now, feel free to start your own conversation to get things started: Honor 6X Forum.

Here are some popular threads to help get you started:

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Tuesday, May 5, 2020

31+ Honor 6X Tips & Tricks