How to connect Xiaomi watch with Huawei phone: step-by-step instructions

Integration of Xiaomi wearables with the Huawei ecosystem is often a question for users, despite the fact that both manufacturers use the Android platform. The main difficulty lies not in hardware incompatibility, but in the aggressive policy of energy saving the shell of EMUI or HarmonyOS, which can prevent the stable operation of background services.

Huawei smartphone owners often experience a device that connects but stops transmitting pulse or step data after hours of operation, because the system “dorms” applications, considering them to be too much on the battery. To avoid data loss and ensure that Mi Fit or Zepp has constant access to the Bluetooth module, you need to perform a number of specific actions in the phone settings.

In this article, we will go into detail the entire process, from choosing the right application to fine-tuning the permissions in the system, you will learn how to get notifications to come instantly and why standard device search may not work without prior preparation.

Choosing the Right App for Interfacing

The first and most important step is to install the appropriate software. Different Xiaomi watches and bracelets require different applications, and an error at this stage will make it impossible to activate the device.The old Mi Band 1-4 bracelet models and some watches work through the Mi Fit app, which is now renamed Zepp.

Newer devices such as the Mi Band 5/6/7/8, Mi Watch and Redmi Watch series also require the Zepp app (formerly Mi Fit) for basic synchronization. However, some specific models may require the installation of Xiaomi Wear (Mi Wear).

⚠️ Note: Do not attempt to use the Huawei Health app to directly activate Xiaomi devices.While Huawei allows you to add data from other sources, primary pairing and firmware of the device is only possible through the watchmaker's native software.

For Xiaomi users, this may be a Mi Account, but for cross-platform work with Huawei, it is more often recommended to use a Google or Facebook sign-in, which ensures better data synchronization in the cloud.

Preparing Huawei smartphone for connection

Before you go into the search for a gadget, you need to prepare the phone's operating system. The EMUI shell and the new HarmonyOS have strict restrictions on background activity. To make the pairing process successful, you need to make sure that the Bluetooth module works correctly and is visible to all devices.

Go to Bluetooth settings and reset the list of paired devices if there are old records of your watch or bracelets. Having junk records often blocks a new connection. It is also recommended to reboot your smartphone to clear the cache of network services and start all system processes again.

Special attention should be paid to geolocation. In modern versions of Android and iOS, enabled GPS is a mandatory requirement for Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), which is used in fitness bracelets. Without an active location, the application simply will not see the device in the list available for connection.

• 📍 Turn on geolocation (GPS) curtain-up.
• 📡 Make sure Bluetooth is activated and your phone is visible to other devices.
• 🔄 Check for updates to the phone system in the "Software Update" section".
• 🔋 Make sure your phone and watch charge is at least 20%.

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If Huawei hasn’t seen a new Bluetooth device for a long time, turn on In-Airplane mode for 10 seconds, and then turn it off.

The pairing process through the Zepp or Mi Wear app

Launch the installed app and log in to your account. The home screen usually displays a device add button or a plus icon. In the Zepp app, you need to go to the Profile tab, then select Add Device and click on Watch. The app will suggest you select the device type: for Mi Band bracelets and Amazfit watches, select the appropriate category.

Put your watch or bracelet next to your smartphone (no more than 1 meter away). Press the scan button in the app. When your device name appears on the screen (such as Mi Band 6 or Mi Watch Lite), click on it. A confirmation code may appear on the watch screen — check it against the code on your phone and confirm the pairing.

When you set up a connection, the system can ask for multiple permissions. It's critical to agree to all requests, especially access to contacts, notifications, and background work. If you ignore those requests, the smartwatch's functionality will be severely limited: you won't be able to see calls or messages from messengers.

After a successful connection, the app will offer to update the firmware watch. Updating firmware is a mandatory procedure for new devices, since the factory version of the software often contains bugs that prevent stable work with third-party smartphones.

Setup of permits and energy saving on Huawei

This is the most important section of the instruction. This is where 90% of the disconnect problems are solved. Huawei's default system kills background processes to save energy. You need to manually create an exception for a Zepp or Mi Wear app.

Go to Settings → Applications → Apps. Find your watch app (like Zepp) on the list. Go to Battery Consumption or App Launch. You need to turn off automatic control and manually turn on all three sliders: Autostart, Indirect Start and Background Operation.

The path to manually adjust (may vary depending on the EMUI version):


Settings -> Battery -> Start applications -> Find Zepp/Mi Wear -> Turn off "Manage automatically" -> Enable all 3 points.

You also need to fix the app in memory. Open the list of running applications (swipe from the bottom up and hold or button square), find the window of the watch application and pull it down or press the lock to show the lock icon, which will prevent the system from closing the application when cleaning the memory.

⚠️ Note: If you use third-party memory cleaners or antiviruses from Huawei (Huawei Mobile Services), add the Zepp app to the exclusion list (white list), otherwise the system will force the connection to close.

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Without setting up the “Run Apps” and fixing it in memory, the watch will disconnect from the Huawei phone every few hours and your pulse history will be lost.

Setup of notifications and data synchronization

After you have set up the technical connection, you need to configure the content transfer. In the app, go to Profile -> Application Notifications. Here you will see a list of all the programs installed on the phone. Turn on the switches for the applications you want to see notifications from on the watch: WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber, calls and SMS.

To correctly display Cyrillic (Russian letters) in the notifications, make sure that the clock settings are the correct font and language. Sometimes you need to switch the language of the phone system to English, add the watch, and then return the Russian language to the encoding was correct, although in modern versions of Zepp this problem is solved.

Health data syncs automatically when you open an app, but third-party bridges can be used to integrate with the Huawei ecosystem, such as the Health Sync app, which allows you to transfer data from Zepp to Google Fit, and from there it can be pulled up to Huawei Health if this option is available in your area.

The table below shows the main features and their availability in the Xiaomi + Huawei bundle:

Solving Common Connection Problems

If the watch is not in the scan, try “forgetting” the device in your phone’s Bluetooth settings, then turning off Bluetooth, restarting your phone, and turning on Bluetooth again. Also, cleaning the Zepp app cache through the Settings menu → Apps → Zepp → Memory → Clear the cache will help.

A common problem is that the watch shows "Connected" in Bluetooth, but the app's status is "Disconnected." This is a classic sign of permission conflict. Go to Bluetooth settings, find the device, click on the gear and make sure that access to contacts and call logs is allowed.

If you completely fail to pair, you may need to reset your watch to factory settings. On the watch, find the Settings menu -> System -> Reset (or press the button on the bracelet until it vibrates). Once reset, the watch will be visible as a new device.