How to Add Any App to LG UX’s Dual App Feature

For owners of modern LG smartphones, you may already know that there is an exclusive built-in feature that allows you to cleanly run split instances of an app called Double application. With this option, you can mimic desktop activity by placing two windows of the same app on the same screen for better productivity.

At first glance, this doesn’t seem so convenient as Dual App only works for a handful of messaging and social media apps – at least, officially.

However, the potential of this app to revolutionize your working experience from the phone is huge. So it’s no surprise that the right people XDA Developers were looking for a workaround and found a solution to work around the restriction.

Using this method, you can theoretically use the Dual App function for any app.

1. Install ADB on PC

First, install ADB. If you have already installed ADB on your PC and are familiar with the tool, you can skip this section. Most likely, nothing that is presented here will be new to you. To get started, we first need to configure things on your smartphone.

Android device configuration

1. On your phone, activate Developer options. For those who have never done this before, go to Application Settings.
2. Then open About the phone (behind System for Android Oreo users) -> then tap on the phone’s build number several times until a text that says you can become a developer appears. You should now be able to modify your phone more freely using a bunch of developer tools.
3. After completing the above steps, the option to enable Developer Settings will appear under the Settings app.
4. Go to the enabled developer options, then enable USB debugging. If a permission request prompt appears, press OK / Allow (you can read the message first so you know what USB debugging is for).

The phone setup process is complete. Now we turn to the computer.

PC configuration

Keep in mind that different people use different operating system. In this case, the setup process will be slightly different, but generally still quite similar. If you want to have a more detailed explanation on how to configure ADB for your particular system, read this article by XDA. Otherwise, here is the general method for LG phones:

1. Download the ADB Tools zip file for your operating system. Here is the download link for the Windows, Linux, and macOS.
2. Extract the compressed zip file into an easily accessible directory. For convenience, we’ll be using the desktop in this particular guide.
3. Open PowerShell / Terminal in the folder where you put the ADB files. There are several ways to do this:

the Windows

For Windows users, you can just go to ADB folder using File Explorer -> then hold down Offset key and right click using the mouse at the same time in the directory.

Then select Open PowerShell / Command window here. If you place the ADB folder on the desktop, do the same on your desktop screen.

Mac and Linux

MacOS and Linux users should use CD command in this case. Open the terminal, then use the CD command to access the ADB folder.

For example, if you place the folder on the desktop, you can do: cd / Users / YourName / Desktop / platform-tools (replace “YourName” with the appropriate directory name).

Connecting your device

1. Connect your Android device to your computer using a USB cable.
2. For LG phones, you may need to set your phone’s USB connection mode to “MIDI” —or the alternative, MTP (file transfer). It is not always mandatory. But, to avoid any potential problem, use this mode.
3. Go back to PowerShell / Terminal. Type ‘adb devices, ‘ then click enter – Linux users may need to put. ‘/’ in front of ‘adb. “
4. We run the ADB command to make sure your Android and computer are properly connected. If so, your device’s serial number should be displayed on PowerShell / Terminal.

The initial setup is complete. Next, we’ll get into the part you’ve been waiting for: add any app to LG UX’s Dual App functionality.

2.Install any app for Dual App function

It’s great to have the app on your device, but what if you want to use it across multiple apps? After all, you want to get the most out of its features. To install any desired application for the Dual App service, we will use your computer with ADB installed. Download the APK file of your choice to your PC. Make sure you are getting the APK from a trusted source.

Initial setup

For the first time ever, we recommend installing a store app (similar to Google Play Store, but unofficial) so that any addition of additional apps can be done without needing to use ADB and a computer. Some platforms that you may want to consider are the Aurora store or APKPure.

Now go to PowerShell / Terminal and run the following command:
adb install – user 98 .apk

For those wondering, “user 98” refers to the user identity used by LG for the second identical application.

Unique identities

When running two identical applications, each of them must have its own Profile ID. The main application should use your own user profile, while the second should get the “dummy” user ID of “98”. This ensures that information from related applications is not mixed up.

That’s all! You can now use the Dual App feature for any app you want.

Earlier we mentioned that we suggest installing a store app. This is the case since you can install any app from the store for the Dual App container and it will have the same user ID of 98.

Final words

In the future, if you find that installing a store app may not give you the results you need, you can always go back to using ADB to add each app individually. However, it may not be very practical. Choosing to use a different store platform instead might just do the trick.