Video calls to police and earthquake warnings. New features in EMUI 11

A Huawei P40 Pro is at the center of the first extensive beta test of EMUI 11. (Image: XDA Developers Forum)

They work only in China so far.

First, Xiaomi implemented earthquake warnings in the firmware of its smartphones, and now Huawei has done the same. Such a function, according to the source, appeared in EMUI 11.

According to the IT home firmware supports early earthquake warnings so that the user still has time to get to the shelter. The screen simultaneously displays the locations of the nearest shelters and data for contacting emergency services.

The second new feature of EMUI 11 is video communication with the police. It starts automatically when the local police number 110 is dialed. Real-time transmission of data during such a call should help police officers better understand the emergency situation in which the person finds himself.

Currently, EMUI 11 earthquake warning works in Sichuan province, and video calls to police in Guangdong province.

Always On Display

One of the news in EMUI 11 is the expanded always-on display, which can be seen in pictures and a video below. There are new styles that give the AOD a little more graphic sophistication, such as the Mondrian style in the picture above. The respective styles can also be adapted and adopted from images in the form of a template. Also possible: Create a completely new style from your own images, including animated GIFs or Live Photos. Import from the Huawei Theme Store is also possible.

New animations

Now that higher refresh rates are becoming more and more popular in the high-end sector (the Huawei P40 series uses 90 Hz AMOLED displays), Huawei has also revised the animations. In EMUI 11 you can see these in the calendar and photo gallery apps in the video below:

Better multitasking

A swiping gesture from the side brings up the so-called “Smart Multi-Window-Panel” in EMUI 11, in which up to 15 configurable apps are available. This can be started from here not only in the split-screen mode as before (by the long press) but also in window mode, in which the apps are arranged one above the other or next to each other as movable windows that can be resized, as in Windows can be. These started apps are then minimized to small bubbles, as they also exist in Android 11 or are already known from Facebook’s chat bubbles. The video below shows what that looks like.

Further improvements in EMUI 11

Huawei has given some system apps a new look and new functions, such as the photo gallery and notepad (see images below)
Incoming notifications are not displayed when using a paired display.
An icon in the status bar should indicate the use of the camera, microphone, location, etc.
Apps in the background are no longer allowed to use the camera or microphone.
Similar to Android 11, you can only assign one-time rights to an app.
New features for the FaceTime alternative MeeTime which should also be available in Germany.
Multi-screen collaboration 3.0 in connection with Huawei MateBooks and Honor MagicBooks
The Celia language assistant is also coming to Germany.