For more and more users, the idea that the laptop, tablet, phone and all other devices can easily connect and communicate with each other, becomes a natural, natural and somehow… mandatory. And this has been happening for a long time in an ecosystem like Apple, for example, where control over the platform is end to end, both in terms of hardware, but especially software. And we asked ourselves: is there such an ecosystem so complete and at least close to functional ?! Yes, at Huawei.
Phone Clone
The first and most handy ecosystem thing that Huawei makes available on their phones is the so-called Phone Clone, an application, a service that allows you to move data from your old phone to your new one. And the process is as simple as possible: you open Phone Clone, there it shows you the new phone and the old phone, one receives data, the other sends, presses a button and you're done. Absolutely everything, pictures, contacts, documents, are transferred to the new phone in a few minutes, depending on the amount of data. Basically, the new phone is a clone of the old one.
Some have even used this Phone Clone to transfer their services and Google Store from the old phone to the new one. But it's more complicated than it seems at first glance. In theory, if you already have such a model that never came out of the box with Google, but you somehow managed to install these services on it, you can later with Phone Clone clone that phone to another. But, I personally do not recommend this, there is life without GMS and Google Play, and you have their own application store. It's not nearly as rich, but it does allow you to install basic stuff. And if that's not enough, there's still a bundle of apps in this AppGallery called More Apps that will provide you with Facebook, WhatsApp, some local banking apps, and other useful apps.
Personally, I prefer to install an alternative store directly on Google Play, and most of the time I used the Pure APK and got absolutely everything I needed from there: applications, messaging services, games, absolutely everything. Installation is simple and hassle-free.
Huawei Share
Let's move on to Huawei Share, another vital component of this ecosystem, and see what it is and what it does. Imagine a whole constellation of devices: laptop, tablet, watch, headphones, and all this has the phone in their center. What Huawei tried to do, like Apple, was to find an integrated system that would allow them all to communicate easily and directly with each other. But it's not an easy task, and that's because Apple has end-to-end control over the entire platform, both hardware, which in theory has Huawei, but especially software. Apple has a closed ecosystem, while Huawei's difficulties are exponentially greater. First of all, you are dealing with two software platforms, none of which they control: Android and Windows. And their Android isn't even full, with GMS and Google Play.
But here's what this service is called Share: it's a file transfer protocol between their devices, using both Bluetooth and WiFi directly, and is somehow implemented in the interface. The devices are recognized by Bluetooth, but the transfer takes place via WiFi Direct, the fastest and most stable protocol. This tool allows you to instantly transfer pictures, movies and files between two Huawei phones, between a phone and a tablet, phone and laptop or tablet and laptop. Between any devices that support Huawei Share. I mean, in my language, kind of like AirDrop at Apple.
The good parts are many: once you don't need a net connection, WiFi direct is independent of any other connection, and as a knowledge, compared to the transfer you would make through an application like WhatsApp, pictures and the clips do not support any compression and therefore no loss of quality. You may perceive it as an inflated and more powerful version of bluetooth in which the device functions as an access point.
Phone to phone transfer
How does this actually happen? Simple. In case of transfer between phones or between phone and tablet, ie two Android, you start on both Huawei Share from the quick dropdown menu above, which automatically activates the bluetooth connection as well. Then select the files, pictures or videos you want to share, much like on iPhone, and in the menu of transfer options that appears, in addition to applications such as whatsapp or mail or other transfer options, you will see the other device which is nearby, and which has Huawei Share activated as well. When you click on its icon, a notification appears on the destination phone asking for permission to copy those files… and you're done. You transferred them. All files will be copied to the other phone in the downloads section, and you can see the pictures directly in the Huawei Share album in the gallery of the receiving device. The whole system is good, well implemented, it never gave me errors and I would dare to say that it is as ok and functional as AirDrop.
Transfer and screen share between phone and laptop and vice versa
But only this connection between phone and laptop seems to me to be next level in this ecosystem. You start by enabling WiFi and Bluetooth on your laptop. Then you do the same on the phone, only here you have to activate NFC. Three taps practically, no big deal. Then just touch the phone with the sticker that says Huawei Share on your laptop. The phone vibrates, you confirm the connection and the devices are connected, and the phone screen appears on the laptop screen! And it doesn't just appear in shape, but you can also interact directly with the phone, from the laptop, and operate directly on it.
You can use your laptop's touchpad or mouse to operate directly on the phone, with all that entails: scrolling, typing, whatever. You can lower that screen down the bar and bring it back from there. And, just like Apple, but more completely somehow, you can answer calls directly on your laptop and of course you can select the device you want to talk about, laptop or phone. Cooler: You can open and edit phone files directly from your laptop, and save them to your phone. The file transfer between the two is great and it's two way. Open the Gallery or document folder on the virtual screen and long click on a file until you have the option to select more. Then you take them all and with drag and drop or copy paste, simple and beautiful, you move them to your laptop. Speaking of this multi-screen story, you can do the same thing between your phone and your tablet, instead of your laptop, which is to display your screen and phone content on the larger display of the tablet.
Or you can simply transfer files between your phone and laptop without using this multi-screen option. One more funny thing, you can record the laptop screen on your phone. You shake the phone, touch that area of the laptop where you have the Hawei Share tag, and the laptop display appears on your phone, and you can record on the phone for 60 seconds what is happening on the laptop screen.
Another interesting thing is that you can sync them. It is a kind of local Google Docs of this ecosystem, for documents. You synced the two devices, this is done from PC Manager, "My Phone" and enable, set some permissions and then you can copy text from a document on your phone to one on your laptop and vice versa. There are a lot of gimmicks and useful functions that dramatically simplify access between different devices under the same brand.
Conclusion
Beyond considerations that have nothing to do with the technology itself, Huawei Share is among the most advanced examples of ecosystem on these platforms, Android and Windows. The ideas are very good, the system works flawlessly, I repeat, especially when they have no control over the operating systems, it is ingenious, simple and smart. This ecosystem brings real advantages of functionality, compatibility and ultimately ease of use and efficiency.
TaguriHuawei