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A second screen, a cutting edge camera, and all the latest Android goodies with an LG garnish, make the LG V10 one of the most exciting, feature-packed phones we’ve ever seen. But those first few fumbling days with a new smartphone can prove frustrating. It can take a while to figure things out, but there’s no need to feel your way around. We can help you skip straight to the fun part, with our roundup of handy LG V10 tips and tricks.
How to customize your unlock pattern
LG popularized the ability to wake your phone by double-tapping the screen, when it introduced the “Knock On” feature in the G2. Things have moved on since then. You can now set a specific pattern, for a modicum of security to go with your convenience. Go to Settings > Lock screen > Select screen lock > Knock Code and you’ll find the option to set an unlock pattern of 3-8 taps that will quickly wake and unlock your V10 from its slumber.
How to streamline navigation
There are two areas you’ll use a lot to navigate around on your LG V10, so it’s well worth customizing them to suit your preferences. Start at Settings > Display > Home touch buttons > Button combination and you can tweak the order and look of your basic navigation, ever-present at the bottom of the screen. You can even add a couple of extra shortcuts in here, for a maximum of five.
You should also customize your Quick Toggles that appear in the notification shade when you drag down from the top of the screen. Pull down the notification shade and scroll all the way to the right, then tap Edit, and you can re-order and tweak the line-up.
How to use the second screen
The second screen is one of the headline features of the LG V10, and you can do various things with it. Go to Settings > Second screen, toggle Show when main screen on and then tap on it to choose what you want displayed. You can have it automatically show the last five apps used, choose shortcuts to your favorite apps and contacts, music controls, upcoming calendar entries, or display a custom signature. You’ll also find that the second screen will contextually display more options for some specific apps, like the camera app, when they’re open.
There’s also a Show when main screen off option, but it’s limited to the date and time, or your custom signature. You can swipe to the right to find toggles for Wi-Fi, flashlight, and camera. If you choose a signature, you can enter the exact text you want and choose from a range of different fonts. You can also make sure sensitive content like upcoming plans never shows when the screen is locked by tapping the three vertical dots at the top right in Settings > Display > Second screen > Show when main screen off and then Hide sensitive content.
How to automate your LG V10
You’ll find some really useful options to automate your phone in Settings > Smart settings. For example, you can automatically turn on Wi-Fi when you’re at home, or automatically turn off Bluetooth when you go out. You could also set the Spotify app to launch every time you plug in headphones. For some of this to work, you’ll need to set up your home location inSettings > Location > My place.
If you really like this kind of automation, but find that LG’s options are a bit limited, then you might want to check out apps like Tasker ($3) or Automate.
How to take a screenshot
You can capture a screenshot on your LG V10 the usual Android way, by holding down the Power button and the Volume down button simultaneously, but it’s pretty awkward to do with the button placement on the back. Thankfully, there is another way. There’s a Capture+ option in your Quick Toggles in the notification shade that will take a screenshot and enable you to edit, so you can annotate if you want to. If you take a lot of screenshots, you can even add Capture+ to the bottom of the screen via Settings > Display > Home touch buttons.
