1. Background

On Huawei tablets and foldable devices, the system automatically enables the App Multiplier (Parallel View) feature for top-ranked apps that only support portrait orientation. This feature renders the same Activity in a left-right split view via system-level rendering to improve usability on large screens.

However, if your app:

  • Is only optimized for portrait mode;
  • Has logic/rendering issues when two windows compete for resources;
  • Has a business scenario requiring single-screen display (e.g., short video, gaming, online classes),

then forcibly enabling App Multiplier worsens the experience, leading to UI misalignment, wasted resources, or even crashes.

The key question:
How can you gracefully tell Huawei’s system: “Don’t split my screen”?

2. Solution Overview

Huawei’s public documentation only explains how to enable App Multiplier, but never mentions how to disable it. After some trial-and-error and communication with Huawei AppGallery operations, we’ve found two viable paths:

Option Code Required Scope Suggested For
A. Whitelist Removal by Huawei Ops ❌ Entire App Rare use cases; coordinate via BD/Ops, timeline unpredictable
B. In-App Configuration (Recommended) ✅ Per version Dev-friendly, works with app updates

This article focuses on Option B — disabling App Multiplier by adding just one line in easygo.json, so that tablets and foldables won’t trigger it by default.

3. What is easygo.json?

easygo.json is the configuration file used by Huawei’s MagicWindow component (which implements App Multiplier). The system parses this JSON to decide:

  • Whether to enable App Multiplier;
  • Which split mode to use (e.g., Shopping, Navigation, Custom);
  • Rules for paired activities;
  • UX compensation settings (e.g., drag, rotation, screen ratio).

More field explanations can be found in Huawei’s official documentation and samples.

4. Key Configuration: excludeDevice

Through testing and developer discussions, we found that MagicWindow supports an internal field in the body section:

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{
  "logicEntities": [{
    "body": {
      "excludeDevice": "PAD|FOLD"
    }
  }]
}

Meaning:

  • PAD: All Huawei & Honor tablets;
  • FOLD: Foldable devices like Mate X, Pocket S, etc.

Once this field matches the current device type, the system treats your app as not supporting MagicWindow — even if it’s top-ranked, it won’t be split.

⚠ Tips:

  1. This field is not publicly documented; it’s found only in internal FAQs or via operations.
  2. If Huawei renames or removes this field in future SDKs, fall back to the Ops whitelist solution.

5. Full Implementation Steps

5.1 Manifest: Add or Keep EasyGoClient

If your app previously added the following to support App Multiplier:

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<meta-data
  android:name="EasyGoClient"
  android:value="true" />

Keep it as-is. If it’s missing, go ahead and add it under <application> in AndroidManifest.xml.

5.2 Create or Edit easygo.json in Assets

Path: app/src/main/assets/easygo.json

Minimal template to disable split view:

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{
  "easyGoVersion": "1.0",
  "client": "com.huawei.demo",
  "logicEntities": [{
    "head": {
      "function": "magicwindow",
      "required": "true"
    },
    "body": {
      "mode": "1",
      "excludeDevice": "PAD|FOLD",
      "activityPairs": [],
      "transActivities": [],
      "Activities": [],
      "UX": {
        "supportRotationUxCompat": "true",
        "isDraggable": "true"
      }
    } 	
  }]
}

Notes:

  • easyGoVersion, head.function, and head.required are mandatory placeholders.
  • mode can be any value; the key setting is excludeDevice.
  • You can also just use "PAD" to allow foldables but disable tablets.
  • Ensure JSON syntax is 100% correct or the system will ignore it.

5.3 Build & Test

  1. Install the APK on a tablet/foldable device — app should launch in single-screen mode.
  2. Go to Settings > Display & brightness > App Multiplier — your app should not be in the list.
  3. Run adb shell dumpsys window — no hw-magic-windows flags should appear on your Activity.

6. Common Issues & Troubleshooting

Problem Solution
App still gets split on some tablets Ensure all historical versions also include easygo.json. Old cached settings from the app market may persist. Try a full-version update.
Legacy versions can’t be patched Upload a new build with a slightly bumped minSDK or versionName to force user updates.

7. Conclusion

With just one line of excludeDevice, you can make Huawei tablets and foldables completely “forget” your app supports split-screen. This preserves your portrait-only UI and avoids extra rendering/logic bugs.

If you later plan to support full dual/triple-column layouts for larger screens, simply remove excludeDevice and switch mode as needed — you can manage it all with one flexible config file.

Pro Tip:
Want to reverse-engineer top-ranked apps? Download their .apk, rename to .zip, extract, and check their assets/easygo.json for real-world config examples.