Tap through the HarmonyOS settings menu in your browser
Buying a Huawei phone means learning a settings menu that looks familiar for about ten seconds and then stops being familiar. Wi-Fi is called WLAN, notifications share a screen with the status bar, and a whole entry exists for stitching nearby hardware together. Four versions are reproduced here so you can see the differences before committing to the hardware.
At a glance
Pick HarmonyOS and a phone appears with its Settings already open. Nothing is a screenshot — every row is a live element you can tap into, and the tree underneath it is the real one. The counts below come from the tree itself, so they move only when the tree does.
- 22top-level entries
- 503rows in total
- 7levels deep
- 4versions
| Device family | Phones |
|---|---|
| Frame shown | Phone |
| Versions | 6.0, 5.0, 4.2, 3.0 |
| Deepest path | 7 levels below the main list |
| Interface languages | 12, switchable while you browse |
| Account needed | No — it runs entirely in your browser |
How HarmonyOS organises Settings
Twenty-two top-level entries run roughly in the order a new owner needs them. Airplane mode, WLAN, Bluetooth and Mobile network handle getting online, then Notifications & status bar, Sounds & vibration and Display & brightness cover the everyday nuisances, then Home screen & wallpaper, Battery and Storage. Biometrics & password, Security and Privacy sit as three separate entries rather than one merged block, which is a deliberate statement about how much distinction Huawei draws between locking a phone, hardening it and controlling what apps learn about you. Apps & services, System & updates and About phone close out the conventional part of the list.
The tail of the list is where the platform shows its own ideas. Super Device is the entry for pulling a tablet, a laptop or earbuds into one working set. Digital Balance is the screen-time tool. Smart assistance and More connections gather the gestures and transfer options that other systems scatter. Around 503 rows sit under those twenty-two headings and the tree reaches seven levels, deeper than most phone systems, largely because display and notification options nest in stages. Newcomers usually stumble on the split between Notifications & status bar and Sounds & vibration, since a silent phone can be caused from either side.
Three settings worth finding
Settings > Display & brightness > Eye ComfortThis is the warm-tint mode that cuts blue light for evening reading, and it sits alongside Color mode & temperature and Dark mode settings rather than under an accessibility heading, which is where people usually look for it first.
Settings > Notifications & status bar > Display network speedAdding a live throughput readout to the status bar is a small but distinctive touch. Worth finding because it demonstrates how this system treats the status bar as configurable furniture rather than a fixed part of the screen.
Settings > Mobile network > Add eSIMDual physical SIM slots and an eSIM entry share a single screen here, which matters for travellers deciding whether a handset can hold a local data plan alongside a home number without swapping trays at the airport every time they land.
Versions of HarmonyOS you can open
4 builds of HarmonyOS are here. Open two of them and the differences stop being release-note bullet points and become screens you can point at.
How this menu got here
Huawei's phone interface grew out of an Android skin, so its settings list still carries the bones of one: WLAN before Bluetooth, a Mobile network entry, an About phone at the end. As the platform moved to its own branding, entries specific to the company's device ecosystem were added and given prominent positions rather than being buried under a miscellaneous heading. The versions offered here, 6.0, 5.0, 4.2 and 3.0, span that transition, and stepping down through them shows entries appearing, changing name and shifting position over successive releases.
Who this is useful for
Anyone weighing a Huawei handset against a more familiar phone benefits, because the question is rarely the camera and usually whether the settings will feel foreign. Shop staff who need to answer that question quickly get a rehearsal space. So do people supporting a relative remotely, teachers showing how one manufacturer reorganises the same underlying ideas, and users of an older release checking what a newer one moved.
What is real and what is sample data
The structure is the real thing: menu names, their order, how they are grouped and what sits inside each one. That is why this article can quote a path such as Settings > Display & brightness > Eye Comfort and expect it to match your phone.
The state cannot be. A device name, an address, a build number, a network name, a storage figure, whether a particular switch is on or off — those belong to a physical phone, not to a menu tree. The simulator fills those in with obvious sample values. Use them to learn where a figure lives; look at your own phone to learn what it says.
Try it yourself
Open HarmonyOS and walk the tree. If you are writing instructions for someone else, turn the step recorder on first: it captures the exact click-path you take, so you can replay or hand over the path instead of typing out tap this, then tap that. Comparison mode will hold HarmonyOS next to another system if you want to see the two layouts against each other. The search will also work backwards: give it a setting name and it reports where every system files it.
Open HarmonyOS in the simulatorFree, no account, works offline — 503 settings rows across 4 versions.Key points
- HarmonyOS shows 22 top-level entries and 503 rows in total, nested up to 7 levels.
- Menu names and their order come from the settings tree itself, so the paths quoted here match the real phone.
- Anything that belongs to a specific device — names, addresses, build numbers, switch positions — is a marked sample.
Questions about HarmonyOS settings
Why does it say WLAN instead of Wi-Fi?
Because that is the wording the interface uses. WLAN and Wi-Fi mean the same thing here, and the simulator keeps the original label rather than translating it, since the point is to match what you would actually read on the screen. If you are searching for wireless settings on a Huawei phone, WLAN is the entry you want.
Does this show real Huawei source code?
No. Where a system is genuinely open source the menu tree can be taken from source verbatim, but this layout is reconstructed from the shipping interface instead. The structure and wording are followed as closely as possible, and the simulator is independent, with no affiliation to or endorsement by Huawei.
Can I compare version 3.0 with 6.0?
Yes. All four listed releases are selectable, and switching between them keeps your position so you can watch a single entry change. That is the fastest way to answer whether something you remember was removed or simply renamed and moved further down the list in a later release.