As has long been the case, LG loaded its latest flagship with its own flavour of Android. That means some features and customisation options are available here that might not be available on other phones, or just work differently. 

This is our comprehensive list of tips and tricks to try on the LG G6 when it lands on your doorstep, or when you go to pick it up. 

LG G6 Home screen tips

Change home screen layout: LG lets you change how you want your home screen to be organised. You can have a traditional version with an app drawer, a simplified home with large icons and text, or the new default: no app drawer. Head to Settings, tap the Display tab, then choose “Home Screen” and select the style you want.

Customise app icons: As with previous LG phones, you can manually change the appearance of any app icon. Just tap and hold on the icon you want to change, then press the little purple paintbrush icon. You can then choose to add your own new icon, or select a pre-existing one. (This only works when you have the "Home and app drawer" home screen layout.)

Customise folder appearance: Tap and hold on any of the app folders you’ve created, then tap the folder title. You’ll then be able to not only change the name of the folder, but change the background colour.

Enable Smart Bulletin: One of LG’s long serving software additions is Smart Bulletin. It’s essentially a widget that appears on the home screen showing useful information from calendar, music, health, Evernote or smart settings when you need it. Head to Settings > Home Screen and switch the Smart Bulletin toggle to the on position.

Change screen swipe effect: In the same settings menu you’ll find the screen swipe effect option. This essentially changes the animation or transition between each of the home screens when you swipe through them.

Change icon shape: By default, all app icons have a rounded square background. To remove it, stay in the home screen settings menu and choose “Icon shape”, then select “original” to remove the icon background.

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Add, remove or reorganise virtual buttons: In the Display settings menu you’ll see a “Home touch buttons” option. Select this and you can change the button combination to add a button for dropping down the notification shade, or launch the Capture+ and QSlide features. You can also choose to switch between white and black buttons.

Adjust DPI: Making use of Android Nougat’s built in feature, you can now change the resolution of displayed icons and text. Stay in the Display settings menu and select “Display size” option, then slide between the three available options to adjust.

Change system theme: Still within the Display settings, hit “Theme” and you can choose from and apply a new theme. This changes the app icon design, wallpaper and menu colour schemes. To download new themes, either hit the download icon in the top corner or head to the SmartWorld app.

Change system font: In the same Display settings menu, under the Font section you can choose between six pre installed font types, six font sizes and select the bold option if you want thicker strokes.

LG G6 display tips

Scale apps to fit 18:9: With LG’s 18:9 screen, apps don’t automatically scale to fill screen. That means you often to see black bars across the top and bottom of the display. To change the ratio, go to Settings > Display and scroll down to “Appearance”. Choose the App Scaling option and select the app you want to change, and choose the 18:9 option.

Filter out blue light: In the same section you’ll find a toggle for Comfort View which filters out blue light for more comfortable night time reading/watching. Switch it on, then tap the three dots to adjust how aggressive you want the filter to be. You can also activate this by dropping down the quick settings shade and selecting it from the options. 

Activate Always-on display: Similar to Samsung, LG phones have an Always-on display feature that shows a clock and notifications on the lock screen in standby. Settings > Display, scroll down to “basic” and then toggle the on switch to activate it.

Customise Always-on display: Hit the three dots next to the Always-on toggle and you can customise what shows up there. You can choose a digital or analogue clock as well as having your signature. You can set a daily timeout period for when you don’t need it on, or switch on the Brighter Display mode which makes it more visible, but drains more battery.

Activate KnockON: KnockON lets you wake or lock the phone by double tapping the screen. You can switch it on in the display settings by heading to the advance settings section, then hitting the toggle switch.

LG G6 lock screen tips

Add a weather animation: One of the cool things about LG’s lock screen is that when it rains or snows, you can get an animation to show up. Just head to Settings > Lock Screen and toggle the weather animation switch.

Add app shortcuts: In the lock screen settings screen, tap “shortcuts” and then hit the “+” icons to add the apps you want access to directly from your lock screen. You can add up to five.

Change swipe effect: Select the swipe screen effect option and then choose between five different animations which show up when you swipe to unlock the phone.

Switch off lock screen: In the lock screen settings, choose the “Select screen lock” option then select “none”. This is also the menu for choosing how you want to unlock the phone, whether that’s by PIN, Pattern or fingerprints.

Add a Knock Code: In the same screen lock settings as above, you can activate the Knock Code. Essentially, you knock the screen in a chosen pattern and unlock the phone that way.

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LG G6 keyboard tips

LG’s built in keyboard is very customisable, for this section in our tips article you’ll find everything you need in Settings > General > Language and keyboard > LG Keyboard.

Add languages: In the LG Keyboard settings, choose “select languages”, then choose which languages you want to add to the keyboard. Many will have different keyboard layout options, so you can choose between QWERTY, QWERTZ and AZERTY for multiple languages.

Change key layout: Head into “Keyboard height and layout” the choose the top layout option. Here you can move the keyboard settings and symbols buttons.

Remove/add number row: Tap the “Extended keyboard” toggle to add or remove the number row that sits on top of the keyboard in portrait mode.

Change height: To make the keyboard taller or shorter, select “Keyboard height” then you can drag the top of the keyboard up or down the screen to meet your height requirements.

Enable full landscape keyboard: By default, the landscape version of the keyboard is quite compact. Go to “Keyboard type in landscape” and select the second option, this way the keys will fill the screen.

Split keyboard in two: If you enable the “Split keyboard” option in the height and layout options, you can drag the keyboard apart while in landscape mode by spreading two fingers on the screen.

Enable one-handed mode: Switch on the “One-handed operation” toggle and you can position the keyboard right near the right or left edge to make it possible to type with a single digit.

Activate/deactivate word suggestions: Back in the main LG keyboard settings list there’s a “Word suggestions” option. Toggle it to add a row to the top of the keyboard which suggests words as you type. Tap the three dots to customise this by enabling emoji prediction, next word suggestions and add words to your personal dictionary.

Swipe/flow typing: Toggle the “Path input” button to the on position, then you’ll be able to type by gliding your thumb or finger across the letters.

More: In the “More” options you can switch sounds and vibrations on or off, or the pop-up on keypress option which shows a bubble with characters above the letter as you press it. You can also activate/deactivate the auto-capitalisation and auto-punctuation options.

Handwrite messages: With the keyboard on the screen, tap and hold the settings cog and press the pen icon. You’ll then need to download languages and, when done, you can scribble letters on a pad and the phone will translate it to text.

Speech to text: Similar to the last step, just select the microphone icon instead of the pen.

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LG G6 Smart Settings tips

Part of what’s great about LG’s software, and has been for years, is that there’s a Smart Settings menu. Here you can automate several functions so that you don’t have to think about it. Just go to Settings > General then choose Smart settings.

Set a home location: Choose the “At home” function, and turn on the option, accepting the location access request. Then choose “Change home address” option and let it find your GPS location and save that as home.

Change settings based on location: Once your home location is set you can tell your phone to automatically change your sound profile as well as your Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections. You can also set it to change when you leave your set home location in the “Away from home” menu.

Auto-launch a music app: Whether you use Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, Tidal or any other music app, you can set your phone to automatically launch it when you connect your wired or wireless earphones. In the Smart Settings menu choose either the “When earphones are plugged in” or “When Bluetooth device is connected” option. Then you just need to choose the app you want it to launch.

LG G6 camera tips

Say cheese to take a picture: Launch the camera, tap the settings cog and toggle the “Cheese shutter” button.

Track moving objects: To keep moving objects in focus as you’re shooting video, toggle the “Tracking focus” switch. Note: This feature only works in FHD and HD quality, it won’t work shooting 4K.

Shoot manual mode: To enable manual controls, tap the little square “A” icon with “auto” written beneath it. You can then choose manual mode, and you can manually adjust focus, ISO, shutter speed, exposure, brightness and white balance.

Switch between front/back cameras: To change between the front and back cameras you can either tap the camera icon on the screen (has a rounded arrow beneath it), or just swipe up or down on the screen.

LG G6 general tips and shortcuts

Shortcut keys: Go to Settings > General and toggle the “Shortcut keys” option. With this on you can click the volume up button twice to launch Capture+ or the volume down button to launch the cameras.

LED flash notifications: Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Hearing and then toggle the “Flash alerts” setting. With this on, the bright camera LED will flash to let you know when you have an incoming message, call or an alarm.

End calls with power button: In Settings > General > Accessibility > Vision you’ll find an “End call with the Power Key” option. Switch it on, now you’ll be able to hang up on people with the button on the back of the phone.

Take a long screenshot: Launch Capture+ - either by double pressing the volume up button or the virtual button you’ve added to the bottom of the screen - then choose “Extended view”.

Markup screenshots: Launch Capture+ and take either a regular or extended screenshot, then use the tools at the top of the page to draw or write on those screenshots before saving or sharing them.

Edit quick tiles: Drop down the quick settings shade the tap “edit”. Now you can add, remove or rearrange existing tiles.

If you discover any other hidden features or options, be sure to sound off in the comments section with any tips we might have missed.