How to customize the home screen
You can select your preferred wallpaper, animations, and more by going to Settings > Display > Home screen. There are lots of things you can do here, including change the Icon shape or tweak your Grid to display more app icons. Toggle Loop Home screen on and you can swipe round and round through your home screens in an infinite loop.
By default, LG has chosen to put all your app icons on your home screens, but if you find that you miss the app drawer, simply tap Select Home at the top and choose Home & app drawer.
How to customize the Always-on display
The Always-on display on the LG V30 is very handy for showing you the time, date, and notifications at a glance. You can turn it on and off by tapping the toggle next to Settings > Display > Always-on display, but you can also tap on Always-on display to reveal a host of nifty customization options. Set Daily timeout if there are hours when you know you don’t want it on, such as during the night. You can also toggle Brighter Display if you’re finding it too dim.
Best of all, you can customize the look by tapping the gear icon next to Content. There are nine different options here, but the bottom three also allow you to choose text and fonts, or pick specific images, to get your ideal set up.
How to customize the lock screen
LG offers a lot of different customization options for your lock screen, found via Settings > Lock screen. Set your wallpaper, clock, animations, screen timeout, and some other bits and pieces. Tap the Shortcuts option and you can add more app shortcuts, beyond Camera and Phone. You can also change the Screen swipe effect or toggle on Weather animation, which shows rain or snow when the weather turns bad outside.
How to change the navigation buttons
You’ll find the standard Android navigation buttons, Back, Home, and Recent apps are displayed at the bottom of the screen on your LG V30, but you can change them if you want to. If you’ve switched from a Samsung phone and find you expect Back and Recent to be the opposite way around, then you can make it happen by going to Settings > Display > Home touch buttons > Button combination. Tap and hold an icon to drag it to a new position. You can also add Notification, Capture+, or QSlide if you’re so inclined.
How to use the Floating Bar
If you want to use LG’s shortcut Floating Bar, which places a small tab on your screen you can tap to unfurl a floating bar of app shortcuts, screen capture controls, music player controls, or quick contacts, then go to Settings > General > Floating Bar. Toggle it on and off or tap on Floating Bar to go in and customize what it does.
How to take a screenshot or GIF
The basic Android method for capturing a screenshot is to press and hold the Power button and simultaneously press and hold the Volume down button until you hear a screenshot sound and see an onscreen animation indicating that a screenshot has been captured. It works on the LG V30 and you’ll find the screenshots in an album called screenshots in the Photos app.
LG also allows you to capture just a portion of your screen, an extended screenshot, or a GIF via the Floating Bar. Go to Settings > General > Floating Bar and make sure only Screen capture is toggled on. Go to the screen or video you want to capture and tap the arrow to unfurl the Floating Bar, then tap the pencil icon to take a basic screenshot that you can then annotate. The down arrow icon allows you to capture more than just what’s on screen, the crop icon allows you to crop just a portion of your screen to capture, and the GIF icon lets you create a GIF from a video on screen.
How to filter out blue light
Too much blue light near bedtime can prevent you from falling asleep as easily as you otherwise would, which is why so many phone manufacturers offer a display mode that filters it out. LG’s is called Comfort view and you can find a toggle for it by swiping down to open your notification shade and then swiping right to find the Comfort view icon.
We never remember to turn it on and off, so we use the scheduling tool in Settings > Display > Comfort view to turn it on and off automatically. You’ll also find that you can tweak the filter in here to find the level that works best for you.
How to save battery life
There are a few ways to save battery life on your LG V30, but one of the most effective is to reduce the screen resolution. Go to Settings > Display, scroll down to Screen resolution and consider setting it to Medium, which is 2,160 x 1,080 pixels. At just 1,440 x 720 pixels, the Low setting is a step too far for us. You should also set your Screen timeout in Settings > Display as low as you can.
Dip into Settings > General > Battery & power saving to check your Battery usage and identify problem apps or services. You’ll also find the Battery saver option in here, which will extend your battery life by reducing performance and restricting background activities. If none of that works for you, then it may be time to shop for a good portable charger.
How to use KnockON
This handy feature pioneered by LG allows you to double tap on the screen to turn it on and off. Its usefulness depends on your security set up and whether you use Always-on display or not, but for some people it’s a quick and easy way to check the time or see if you missed any notifications. To toggle it on or off head into Settings > Display and scroll down to More at the bottom under Advanced settings.
How to unlock your LG V30 with your face
Facial recognition is growing more popular as a smartphone security measure and you have the option of unlocking your LG V30 with your face. To set it up go to Settings > Display > Lock screen > Face Recognition and you’ll be prompted to enter your PIN. It’s quick and easy to set up, just make sure your face is within the circle. It’s not the most secure method, but you can make it slightly more secure by toggling on Advanced face recognition. You can also tap Improve face recognition to train it to better recognize your face. This option is especially handy if you grow a beard or want to teach it what you look like with glasses on.
How to use Smart Lock
If you get fed up having to use your fingerprint, swipe a pattern, or tap in a PIN to unlock your phone, then you could always turn on Smart Lock. You’ll find it in Settings > Display > Lock screen > Smart Lock. There’s a choice of different methods. For example, you can set it up to stay unlocked when you’re at home, or unlock when your smartwatch is nearby.
How to take wide angle photos
One of the best things about the cameras in the LG V30 is the support for wide-angle photos, which enables you to fit in more of the landscape or take a good group selfie. While other manufacturers have gone head over heels for bokeh, LG has focused on fitting more in. It’s easy to take advantage. In the main camera, simply tap the multiple trees icon at the top of the screen. When you’re using the front-facing camera, tap the multiple people icon.
How to take a photo with a voice command
We’re pleased to see that LG is still including Cheese shutter as an option in the camera app. It allows you to say “Cheese”, “Smile”, “Whisky”, “Kimchi”, or “LG” to trigger a photo. Tap the gear icon at the bottom left in your camera app and toggle on Cheese shutter to try it out.
How to shoot cinematic video
The V in LG V30 should stand for video, because this phone has some serious video shooting chops. We covered some of its capabilities in our Cine Video mode review, but here’s a quick guide to using it. Open the camera app and tap Mode to select Cine Video. Now you can tap the film strip icon on the left to select different modes including Thriller, Mystery, Historical, and Romantic comedy. There are 15 different effects to play with and they change the color palette and create different moods quite effectively. If you find the effect is too much, just use the Strength slider to dial it down a bit.
How to tweak your sound
LG takes sound quality seriously, so if you plug in speakers or a set of headphones to your LG V30, then you’ll find that you can access the Hi-Fi Quad DAC option. The option is listed under Sound & notification and can be toggled on there. You can also tap on it and choose the balance you want, select different Sound presets or change the Digital filter. If you’re an audiophile, then you’ll definitely want to tweak some things in here.
