Huawei P20 Pro receives two updates: August 2018 Security Patch and MasterAI disabled

Huawei’s P20 Pro just received September’s update, which includes Google’s August security patch, as well as disabling MasterAI.

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Huawei’s September patch includes Google’s August security patch, as well as disabling MasterAI by default. It is rather curious that MasterAI, one of the features used to market this smartphone, has been disabled by default on the smartphone, and now has to be turned on manually by the user. The second patch fixes a Wi-Fi issue.

But first, let’s have a look at the patch itself. This month, we haven’t checked our P20 Pro immediately, and only checked it at the end of September, noticing there were two patches waiting to be installed, instead of one. According to somebody who owns the P20 Pro, these patches were released a while ago. The new patches change the version from CLT-L29 8.1.0.152(C432) to CLT-L29 8.1.0.156(C432) and CLT-L29 8.1.0.156(C432patch01) and are about 520 MB in size.

CLT-L29 8.1.0.156(C432) is August’s security update, as well as disabling MasterAI, while CLT-L29 8.1.0.156(C432patch01) is the patch fixing the Wi-Fi issues.

For the first patch, the patch notes read as following:

[Security] Integrates Google security patches released in Aug 2018 for improved system security. For more information on the security of Huawei app updates, please visit the official Huawei website at https://consumer.huawei.com/en/support/bulletin/2018/8/.
[Camera] Master AI is now disabled by default. You can enable it manually.

For the second patch, the patch notes read as following:

This update fixes an issue where a Wi-Fi scanning prompt repeatedly popped up in certain scenarios.

The Wi-Fi issue was also fixed in an earlier patch on Huawei’s Mate RS Porsche Design, which received the same exact patch and patch name.

Concerning MasterAI now being disabled by default, and having the user enabling it if the user wants, is more puzzling. Huawei heavily marketed this smartphone with its AI camera and such, and now they are disabling the option. It is true that MasterAI drew quite a lot of criticism from unhappy users, due to some of the aggressive options, such as Greenery or the effects on portrait mode, but to the point of turning off the option by default?

An explanation could be that the average user is unable to find the option. This has been “fixed” in EMUI8.2, as the option is not in the settings anymore, but directly on the main screen of the camera application.