The LG G3 is out and already earning a reputation as one of the best Android phones ever.
The G3, with its edge-to-edge QHD display (with massive 534ppi pixel density), laser focussing camera and super long battery life, is also a great device for power users. And what power users love more than anything else is to hack and tweak their devices.
If you have rooted your G3 you may have noticed there aren’t many custom ROMs available for the device just yet. But that need not stop you from customising your phone. Installing the Xposed Framework opens up Android to a wealth of options for modding and tweaking Android, and the module G3 Tweaksbox is a veritable treasure trove.
Available through the Play Store, G3 Tweaksbox is packed with changes that work within LG’s custom skin—they cover tweaks to the skin itself, as well as changes for the Android OS and apps.
Cosmetic changes
These range from simple cosmetic changes like setting the status bar to match the colour of each app’s action bar—something we’ll be seeing a lot more of when Android L hits later this year—to useful UI enhancements like being able to adjust the screen brightness by sliding your finger along the status bar, or adding up to four additional icons to the navigation bar, making better use of the G3’s plentiful screen real estate.
It also enables you to add or unlock new features on the phone, including call recording, reconfiguring the volume keys to also control your music app, and enhancing the power off menu.
Tweaksbox vs GravityBox
G3 Tweaksbox covers similar ground to GravityBox, the default module that all Xposed user should have, but since it is device specific it works with LG’s software customisations in a way that GravityBox, with its one size fits all approach, cannot.
The best thing about Xposed is that all of the changes can be undone with ease. Simply uninstalling a module, or disabling Xposed altogether, then rebooting, will revert your phone back to its pre-Xposed state.