15 Tips, Tricks and Hacks for the Huawei P8 lite
The Huawei P8 lite, while older than Huawei’s Mate 8, has a fair amount of tricks packed beneath its LCD screen. Most of these tricks come with the addition of Android Lollipop, which the P8 lite didn’t ship with originally. If your P8 lite has passed its chocolate phase, there’s plenty you can do with it now.
I’ll start with some gestures that come in handy during everyday use, and mention a few tricks to squeeze some extra battery life out of the downsized flagship. If you’re still here, I have plenty more where that comes from. The Huawei P8 lite is lighter than the standard P8, but it still has tricks up its sleeve.
Tips for Everyday Use
I’ll start with gestures and features you should keep toggled on, or off, to make each day with the Huawei P8 lite a convenient one.
1. Stop the Noise with Just a Flip
In your Motion Control settings, you can enable a flip gesture that can silence alarms, calls, notifications, and anything else annoying your ears. While this is extremely convenient to silence your phone quickly, be careful with enabling it for alarms.
It’s difficult to wake me up in the morning, and with a gesture like this I can go back to bed with just a flick of the wrist.
2. Pick Up to Turn the Noise Down
Let’s stay in your Motion Control settings for a while longer and see what happens when you pick up your loud phone, instead of flipping it. With this toggled, any loud alarms or ringtones will grow quiet when you pick your phone up.
I like this gesture much more than flip, if only because it makes it harder for me to hit the snooze button.
3. Answer with Your Ears, and Not Your Fingers
This next gesture within your Motion Control settings is similar to the pick-up gesture. Once toggled, you can answer the phone by raising it to your ear. Similarly, if you raise the phone to your ear while on a contact’s page, you’ll call them.
This gesture will become second nature very quickly once activated, so it’s one that I recommend.
4. Shake Your Phone to Change Icon Placement
Have you ever been so frustrated with your icon layout that you want to shake your phone into a different one? I haven’t, but if you want a quick gesture to hop into Icon editing, you can toggle the shake gesture in your Motion Control settings.
After activation, just give your phone a shake on the home screen, and move your icons around however you please.
5. Ask Your Phone Where It is with Voice Wake-up
I’ll often ask my phone where it is when I can’t find it, but it hasn’t answered back once. Thankfully, if you give the Huawei P8 lite a shout, it’ll call back out to give away its location. By default, your phone’s name will be “buddy,” or “P8,” so shout out “Hi Buddy, where are you?”
When you do, the P8 lite will vibrate, light up, and say “I’m here!” If you’ve changed your phone’s name, call that out instead. I just hope you didn’t call him something embarrassing if you have to find him in public.
6. A New Way to Take Screen Shots
For this tip, turn on Smart Screenshots in your Smart Assistance settings. With this enabled, if you want to take a screenshot, lightly knock on your screen twice. When you do, your phone will vibrate to confirm the shot, and even give you a little knock-knock joke, free of charge.
Tips to Customize Your Phone to Your Needs, and Keep It Secure
Every phone deserves to be unique, and ever since the P8 lite’s upgrade to 5.0, this has become even easier. With these tips your phone will be under your complete control, and exude as much personality as you do.
7. Customize Your Notifications
If you haven’t upgraded your P8 lite yet to 5.0, it’s worth it for notification control alone. Now each app can be tweaked to never display notifications, only display notifications when set as a priority, or change it to sensitive to make sure it doesn’t display on your lock screen.
8. Download a New Launcher
The fastest way to spruce up a phone’s sense of style is with a new launcher, and if I can only recommend one, it has to be Nova Launcher Prime.
Nova Launcher Prime is a paid experience, but one well worth the money. With a new launcher, your amount of customization options hit new heights. You can change everything from your icon style, to your UI with the right launcher. If the default P8 lite style isn’t enough for you, give the free version of Nova a try.
9. Pin a Screen to Keep Prying Eyes Locked in Place
I have more than a few friends who like to scroll through my phone after handing it off to them. With Screen Pinning, this becomes impossible. To activate the feature:
- Navigate to your Settings
- Head to Security
- Now select Screen Pinning
Once you’ve enabled the screen pin, launch the app you want to pin your screen to, then hit the overview (multitasking) button. Now scroll up and give the blue thumbtack icon a tap in the bottom right corner of your most recent app.
That app is now pinned, and you can un-pin it by long pressing both the back and overview buttons simultaneously.
10. Initiate Guest Mode
If pinning your screen isn’t enough to keep prying eyes and fingers away from where they shouldn’t be, Guest Mode is your next option. If you go to Settings and then Users, you can tap Guest to start a new instance of Android. This new instance will have only stock apps, and no personal information.
11. Enable Smart Lock
Smart Lock is another security feature that helps keep your phone locked at the appropriate times. Smart Lock has set conditions, but to activate it:
- Navigate to your Settings
- Head to Security
- Select Smart Lock
From here you can alter your Smart Lock settings to choose when and where your device will stay unlocked. Personally, I prefer to have it set to stay unlocked while on your person.
Note: Smart Lock will only work if you have a pin, pattern, or password set on your phone.
12. Root Your Phone and Unlock its Potential
In the world of customization and security, there is no bigger step than rooting. Once rooted, you can use different custom ROMs, and apps that are impossible to activate on a stock device. If you want to unlock all of your P8 lite’s customization potential, rooting is recommended.
Tips to Keep Your Battery Healthy and Long Lasting
The battery is arguably one of the more important aspects of an Android phone. With the Huawei P8 lite’s non-removable 2200mAh battery, and demanding internal components, keeping it charged throughout a day is rough. If you want your P8 lite to stay on from sunrise to sundown, you’ll need some tips.
13. Turn on Power, Ultra Power, or Smart Power Saving Mode
When you’re down to less than 10% battery, and you still have half the day to get through, it’s time to turn on Power Saving Mode. Toggling any of the three power saving modes gives you a boost in battery life, at the cost of appearance and performance.
You can toggle your three power saving modes at any time from your Battery Settings. The standard Power Saver has the best balance between performance and battery life. The Ultra Power Saver is the end all, be all that will cripple performance in exchange for battery life.
Lastly, Smart Power Saver attempts to meet your power saving needs automatically by changing its settings throughout the day.
14. Set Battery Saver Parameters
If you set parameters in your Battery Saver, there’s no need to switch to Power Saving Mode unless there’s an emergency. In your Battery Settings, you can set battery saving to activate at 5%, 10%, or 15%.
15. Monitor Battery Usage with New Apps
While the stock Android experience tracks battery usage, it helps to get a second opinion. Battery monitoring apps can help pinpoint new battery drainers, and keep track of old apps sucking battery.
Most battery saving apps can not only keep track of battery sucking offenders but help keep your phone cool under pressure. If you’ve only been keeping track of your battery statistics with stock tools, it’s time for an upgrade.
Conclusion
The Huawei P8 lite may be a compromise in terms of power when compared to its bigger brother, but the lite experience is still a memorable one. Ever since the P8 lite received its update, it’s a midrange phone that can still run with the middle of the pack.
Do you know about any secrets hiding away in the Huawei P8 lite? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
I have a huawei p8 lite, and it has none of these features( direct to ear, smart assistance and voice wake up) it’s an android 5.0.1, and I don’t know what’s wrong. Please help.
@Simona
Have you gone through the settings to make sure? Many times the features are off by default. Try these steps and let us know how it works out for you.
1 On the home screen, touch Settings.
2 Under All, touch Motion control.
3 On the Motion control screen, select an option, and select a motion to enable it.
Sir on the motion screen there is not optiopn bar
Hi Ejaz,
Can you please rephrase your question?
I don’t have any of this settings on my p8 lite,
Not even one?
It’s because these features are for the p8 and not the p8, lite
I also have the P8 Lite. I would love to have the voice wake up, but it’s not a feature of the lite. Very disappointed
Hi, Bridget! Google Assistant has a voice alarm function, and there are many, many voice alarm apps in the Google Play Store.
Thanks Megan, I was wanting the function that allows you to find your phone though. Are there any apps that can do that? I have tried Saiy, but it’s pretty useless, can’t even get through the tutorial, lol. Thanks for your help 🙂
Hi, Bridget. Google Assistant allows you to wake your phone with your voice. Then you can command it to play sound to help you find it. Is that more what you’re wanting?
Hi joy of android, I too can’t access the direct to ear motion. I have done the steps you left, but it still won’t work! what else can i do? Please help
Hi Jem,
Have you tried rebooting your phone to see if the cobwebs clear and the steps work? Sometimes the solution is as easy as that and hopefully that is your case too. =-)
HIE GUYZ my huawei p8 lite is using lollipop andriod version 5.0.1 how do i update it
Hi Keith,
Your phone is already getting the Marshmallow update. It´s only a matter of time before you get it. Enjoy it once you get it. Thanks for commenting. =-)
The huawei p8 lite does not have most of the features listed on this article.
Hello guys i have a p8 lite.
thats all i wanted to say.
ok
bye
Hi Boet,
That’s good to know. I hope you are enjoying your phone and thanks for commenting. =-)
I have huawei p8 lite and how to deactive guest mood please tell me quickly I am waiting ….
Hi Danish,
It may not be available on all models or phones but it can be accessed by swiping two fingers down from the top of the phone. Then select the User icon at the top right of the phone. Then select Add Guest. To exit guest mode, just repeat the above steps but select Remove Guest instead. Hope this helps. =-)
hi android team
i too have a problem how do i set up my email?
every time i try to set up it says cannot connect to server even if i have airtime and data
Hi Austin,
Are you sure your Internet connection is Ok or that you are trying to connect to the right one with the right password? =-)
its p8 i am talking aboutr
1.my mobile hauwei p8lite not update new os marshmallow
2.Otg cabe not support
Hi There,
What is your question? =-)
there is no option for data connection in shortcuts. can i change setting of shortcuts ??//
to which tip are you referring to?
I think your article was derived from the Huawei P8, the P8 lite has some things removed such as the speech recognition etc. I just got the P8 lite and i was disappointed to find out that it doesn’t have the voice wake up feature.
The voice wakeup feature is great but does it have any other features you´re happy with? Thank you for your observation. We will definitely have a look into it.
Hi
kindly tell me about wakeup feature setting for huawei p8 lite
Hi Anam,
What would you like to know exactly?
Why does my p8 lite bleep once everyday at 1900 hrs – I’ve checked all the obvious possibilities but no luck.
Do you have an app like Lookout installed or apps that try to locate your phone? It could be that. Try booting your phone in safe mode for a few hours to see if it continues to do it.
I have p8 lite and i have a problem. I cant find a browser on it. When i go to the settings-manage app i see that i have browser app but its nowhere on my menu. Please help 🙁
You can always download Chrome or any other browser from Google Play. https://joyofandroid.com/fastest-browsers-for-android/
My privacy protection feature disappeared on my phone after i’ve enabled it, how can i get my apps back and dissabled it??? I did go to settings, but the option vanished
Where did you enable it? Which menu?
Here is a link to where it should be
I have a P8 Lite and it does not retrieve MMS messages. Huawei have replaced the mainboard and I have factory reset so many times.
Seems to be an issue with one carrier only (amaysim Australia). Others have also reported problems with MMS on Huawei handsets.
User from other services such as Cricket is also having the same problem. Try taking out the battery and leaving it out for a minute or two and then putting it back in and rebooting. Make sure mobile data and background data are enabled, and that 3G is on. Hope this helps.
This sounds like it’s for the p8, which I had, lovely phone, got the p8 lite now since my p8 got stolen, and it feels like a child’s toy, almost none of the options you gave are available, and I do have the latest lollipop update, this phone is terrible and just a nightmare, it’s literally freezing as I type this, with no apps running in the background and I’ve set it to performance mode, I say get a p8, never waste money on a lite, it’s a nightmare of a phone
My Huawei P8 lite d’uont have speech awarness where can i can get it ?
it’s a hardware thing that’s missing. Other than trying an app like Google Now, I think you will be hard pressed to find a way to make it work.
The voice wakeup is not working for me. I think it’s for the P8. But thanks 🙂
it makes a difference, it is available on the p8, but not the p8 lite.
which device do you have?
I don’t know how to activate the Voice Waker in the P8 Lite. Can someone help me out? I was searching and it looks like it’s a feature of the P8 and not the P8 Lite, I hope I’m wrong.
Cheers!
It is a P8 feature, not P8 lite. The article was updated to reflect that. My apologies.
Hi there. I would like to know how i can hide or at least make translucent the navigation bar on my huawei p8 lite 2017. I did it before but camt seem to figure it out again. And it doesn’t have the hi buddy feature either. Im from South Africa if that has any significance.
Hi, Sal. You can only hide the navigation bar if your device’s software is version B150 or older, or if you’ve updated to Marshmallow (older than version 320) using a ROM with the “hide navigation bar” toggle activated. If your OS fits these requirements, simply go to Settings -> All -> Navigation Bar and select Hide Navigation Bar.
Hi , my Huawei P8 lite has malfunctioning home keys. What can I do to make them work again? Or if there are other home key apps on the market,which ones can I use that wont disappear once i leave the page or exit the apps?
Hi Eddie. Without knowing exactly what’s wrong with your home keys, I can’t give you a fix, but it’s generally a hardware issue and will need to be repaired by a technician. There are tons of home key apps in the Google Play Store that you can find by simply searching “home key apps” in the store. Simple Control is one of the best rated and offers a lot of customization.
i have a huwei p8 life and its failing to connect to any wifi,,, pliz help
i have a p8lite and it is failing to connect to wifi plizz help
I have a ALE-L21 C185B200 2nd hand
o/s is from 2016 android 5.0.1
and security patch is 1 Aug 2016 (!)
HUAWEI suite HiSuite reckons I have the latest update
which is obviously not so
What is best way to update (is it possible?)
Also, how to update via laptop/USB and not by wi-fi ?
Hi Will,
Thanks for sharing your concern to us.
However, Huawei truly has no more device update for the Huawei P8.
You can, however, update your Huawei P8 to the latest Android 8.1 OREO.
Although, it will require you to understand and obtain the skills to flash your phone with custom ROM.