If your Huawei smartphone has been updated to run on EMUI 8.1 or later and you have the Huawei Assistant enabled, you might have already noticed that there’s a new widget on the screen when you swipe right.
It’s their ‘News’ feature that was officially launched by Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) on 28 August. This feature is accessible in both English and Bahasa Malaysia and users can get a curated feed of local news at the swipe of a fingertip.
According to Huawei, this lets users browse news pulled from different platforms without having to move between apps or websites. The type of news available to users with the feature includes general news, lifestyle, health and business content from selected local media and publishers.
The company partnered up with Taboola News to source content as the latter congregates news from their publisher partners. A quick scroll through ‘News’ shows content from both local publishers like Free Malaysia Today and SAYS, and international publishers like Bloomberg and NBC News.
Other features that Huawei Assistant offers are ‘Global Search’, ‘Instant Access’ and ‘SmartCare’. ‘Global Search’ is found on the top of the Huawei Assistant page in the form of a search bar. Entering a keyword into the bar will pull up files, apps, contact details, emails and even websites that correlate to the keyword.
‘Instant Access’ enables users to create shortcuts to their most-commonly used apps, eliminating the need to scroll through your smartphone’s menu in search of those apps.
Meanwhile, ‘SmartCare’ helps users organise tasks and sends reminders to them to complete those tasks based on planned schedules in their calendar. You’ll also find information on your mobile data consumption and phone performance reports under this feature.
