But the simplest customization options that you’ve got for your phone are your lock screen and home screen wallpapers. And you can take it one step further by installing a moving image to your background—a live wallpaper. Check out our top picks for the best live wallpaper apps for Android you’re going to love.
1. Forest Live Wallpaper
The Forest Live Wallpaper app offers soothing live backgrounds with many beautifully animated options. It can match the weather outside and even has some fun surprises during the holiday season, such as bright stars during Christmas and fireworks during the New Year.
It also has night settings, which can make your wallpaper more visible at night. Although the app isn’t frequently updated, it’s still one of the best live wallpapers you can use for Android phones.
Download: Forest Live Wallpaper (Free, in-app purchases available)
2. Muzei Live Wallpaper
Muzei Live Wallpaper displays different works of art on the lock screen every day. It can also change the wallpaper between your favorite photos every few hours.
One of the unique things about this app is that it’s developer-friendly, with the source code of the app available at code.muzei.co. This means that anyone can use the source code to manipulate and develop their own unique live wallpapers.
Download: Muzei Live Wallpaper (Free)
3. ASTEROID App
The space-themed ASTEROID App lets you customize your live wallpaper, from the background color to the type of asteroid shown to the color of the asteroid, among other things.
Besides being a regular live background app, it also has a static image mode that will display a photo every 10 seconds. This is useful for those who want to minimize battery consumption while still having fun with their lock screen.
For more exciting features and to unlock different asteroid designs, you can upgrade to the premium version of this app.
Download: ASTEROID App (Free, premium version available)
4. Cartogram
If you travel around a lot, you can easily use a map as your wallpaper. Cartogram tracks your location and sets a wallpaper according to your location’s background.
If you want to customize the wallpaper that the app flashes, this is possible as it can easily be adjusted according to your preferences through the app’s settings. You don’t have to worry about this, too, as the app comes with many high-quality live wallpapers that will not disappoint.
Download: Cartogram ($3)
5. Rainpaper
Rainpaper compiles the best live wallpapers from Reddit. With this app, you get customizable weather effects like rain and fog to use as your background. You can also choose the rain color, frequency, and type of droplets depending on your preferences.
In addition, Rainpaper lets you sync your actual weather with the app through its local weather synchronization feature. You can pick any photo from your device to serve as the background image alongside the live background as well.
Download: Rainpaper ($1.99)
6. Paperland Live Wallpaper
The Paperland Live Wallpaper app hasn’t been updated for a while but is still worth checking out. It features fun paper cut-out landscapes crawling through the phone’s screen. You can set the sunrise and sunset and even the weather within the app, through integration with AccuWeather.
In the free version of this app, you can choose from three wallpaper themes: silent night, grassy, and desert migration. You can upgrade if you want more.
Download: Paperland Live Wallpaper (Free, premium version available)
7. Borderlight Live Wallpaper
Borderlight Live Wallpaper is a simple but very neat idea. This live wallpaper app displays a multicolored moving border around your screen’s edges. It can be adjusted to fit any size of the screen without any problems.
You can also opt to add a normal background image to be paired with it, adding to the edge lighting effect. Apart from this, the app also allows users to set the notch’s position and size, which will give a poised and finer look to your gadget’s background.
Download: Borderlight Live Wallpaper (Free)
8. 4D Live Wallpaper
The 4D Live Wallpaper app is a collection of the best AMOLED live wallpapers. It features live backgrounds with a cool 3D depth effect, with lots of options for different people with different tastes.
Another great thing about this is that even though it offers many great wallpapers, it uses a low amount of battery. And best of all, if you’re a tech enthusiast, you can get a wallpaper that can be controlled by your smartphone’s sensors.
Download: 4D Live Wallpaper (Free)
9. W. Engine
W. Engine gives you the option to use live wallpapers as your lock screen and home screen. It also comes with an auto wallpaper changer, which automatically rotates the live background.
There are lots of options to choose from so you can definitely find something that suits your tastes. Aside from live wallpapers, you can also get ringtones from this app, which is a great accompaniment for your moving background.
Download: W. Engine (Free, in-app purchases available)
10. ZEDGE Wallpapers & Ringtones
Zedge positions itself as an all-in-one wallpaper app, claiming that it’s the only one you’ll ever need. The app contains a rich collection of live wallpapers of all themes from space to spiritual, alongside static wallpapers. There’s an in-app currency called “Zedge Credits” that you can use to get premium content; this currency can be purchased with real money or earned by watching ads.
The app also has a vast library of free ringtones and alarm sounds that you can browse through. This means you don’t have to download more apps to explore different ringtones; you can access everything in the Zedge app itself and decide on the spot if your ringtone matches your wallpaper’s vibe.
Download: ZEDGE Wallpapers & Ringtones (Free, in-app purchases available)
Customize Your Smartphone With These Free Live Wallpapers
Live wallpapers are a great way to customize the Android user interface with the many possibilities that the Android OS provides. This is made easier by numerous live wallpaper apps that offer different kinds of live backgrounds depending on your preferences.
From color-changing borders and minimalist islands to moving asteroids and 4D live backgrounds, you can surely find an app and wallpaper to suit your taste. These apps all make it easy to change your Android wallpaper, too.
