Live wallpapers are a built-in Android feature that allows you to use animated or interactive pictures instead of the standard screen saver. At the beginning of their existence, such applications were not very stable and created an excessive load on the battery. But today, a lot has changed..
Modern collections of live wallpapers attract with a wide variety of visual effects, where there is everything - from uncomplicated textures to fantastic landscapes with spaceships slowly floating in interstellar space. Along with other advantages, including a lot of individual settings that help to give the phone's display a unique look, moving pictures save battery power.
It is believed that good wallpapers can only be purchased for money, but this is absolutely not true. Choosing something really worthwhile can be tricky, though, as the Play Store is overflowing with the frankly mediocre creations of some developers. We have selected the best free personalization apps for you so that you can decorate your smartphone or tablet desktop without any financial investment..
Minima
Minima wallpapers are distinguished by their immaculately neat design. There are two versions available for download in the Play Store - paid and free. We recommend opting for the first option, which costs only 75 rubles. First, you get access to the full feature set, and second, it is more up-to-date compared to the free version, which hasn't been updated since early 2016. It is noteworthy that they even have completely different icons.
Minima uses a mobile device's gyroscope, which makes the geometric shapes on the screen move as the phone turns and moves, similar to the parallax effect on the iPhone. As soon as you touch the display, the 3D perspective of the wallpaper becomes flat, as if you were interacting with plain paper. Each of the pictures can be easily changed using a palette of customizable colors..
Google Wallpapers
In 2016, Google developed its own Google Wallpapers app with a catalog of wallpapers for the Google Pixel smartphone. After some time, the application was optimized for all Android mobile devices and appeared in the Play Store. It wasn't until 2017 that live wallpapers were added to the collection, which coincided with the release of the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL.
For a long time, the application was considered the best in its category and, of course, Google allowed it to be installed only on branded Pixel 2 smartphones. But Android is so good that it makes it possible to upgrade any application for it. This is what happened in this case.
One of the XDA forum members, developer Pranav Pandey, managed to modify the existing version of Google Wallpaper so that the program runs on any phone or tablet. And although it does not work very stable in comparison with the native Pixel, you can download the updated distribution from the link in the first paragraph.
If someday Google decides to make this app available to all devices, it will take one of the first places in our ranking. In the meantime, we recommend using it only as a fun addition when experimenting with phone settings.
Muzei
The Muzei app broadens the understanding of what is included in the concept of "live wallpaper", since we will not see anything "live" here. Instead of animated landscapes, our attention is offered to successive reproductions of famous works of art. Hence the name.
Muzei has gained popularity among millions of users not only because of the opportunity to get acquainted with the best examples of painting and graphics, but also because plugins from other similar applications are easily embedded into it. The application is compatible with a certain type of collection of static wallpapers and even animated Minima, which we described above.
Reducing the brightness of images and the blur effect allows shortcuts and widgets not to get lost in the background of colorful pictures. This is a rather interesting application, in which the modest set of options is compensated by the flexibility of the settings.
Live Weather
The Live Weather application appeared in the Play Store relatively recently and, apparently, work on it is still ongoing. But even what is available at the moment is beyond praise. The principle of operation is quite simple: receiving information about the weather conditions in your area, Live Weather updates the background screen saver of the phone to the corresponding picture.
If it's warm and clear outside, you'll see an image of a sun-drenched beach. If it rains or a thunderstorm breaks out, a snapshot of a gloomy sky with dark clouds and lightning will appear on the screen. The photos themselves are not animated, do not contain any effects that could consume the resources of the phone. Instead, new bright wallpapers periodically appear on the screen at intervals of 1 hour or when the current weather report changes.
Awesome land
"Magnificent landscapes" - this is how the name of the Awesome Land application sounds in English , which will undoubtedly appeal to nature lovers. Here you will find more than a dozen beautiful, almost static images made in a vibrant color palette.
It can be winter, summer or autumn landscapes with luxurious trees against the background of blue azure, cirrus clouds or a starry sky. It is very popular, it has already been downloaded by over 5 million users.
Ink in Water
Ink in Water contains a selection of beautiful wallpapers, including a collection of HD abstract pictures with the effect of moving water, in which colorful paint or ink dissolves. You can change the background at your own discretion, adjust the animation parameters of drops and waves, add glowing stripes and highlights. The wallpaper looks great in both portrait and landscape orientation, automatically adjusting to screen rotation on phones and tablets.
Forest
With Forest live wallpaper, you can enjoy the view of a dense green forest located near the majestic mountains. The application has many dynamic effects that follow the rhythm of the Earth's rotation around its own axis.
Depending on the time of day, the background of the picture gradually darkens, after the twilight, a starry sky appears on the screen. The crowns of trees sway smoothly, obeying the movement of the wind. The change of scenery can be adjusted to the local weather forecast , be it rain, snow or cloudy sky.
Raindrops
Contemplation of drops of water slowly flowing down the glass - there is something attractive in this. Raindrops does a great job of recreating this kind of atmosphere. But live wallpapers are not just high-definition video, but much more.
The subtle blur effect helps to ensure that shortcuts and widgets on the screen do not lose their usual clarity. The application is designed for low resource consumption and almost does not consume battery power.
Stalker cat
By installing Stalker Cat , you will be able to watch the mischievous kitten walking along the perimeter of your phone screen. The black silhouette, popping up every time in a new place from outside the display, takes on a smug look, thinking that no one noticed him. The artist Anne Pätzke calls this little prankster “cute and adorable”. And we cannot but agree with her.
Maxelus
The developer Maxelus.net has released a huge series of live wallpaper applications. Let's name only the most popular ones: Space Colony, Supermassive Black Hole, Alien Shapes, Symphony of Colors. Most of them are thematic, but with the ability to customize individual elements, for example, changing the color palette. More than fifteen variants with animated screensavers are available for download on the Play Store.
Oajoo Device Info
Oajoo Device Info displays information about the state of the smartphone, such as the degree of utilization and temperature of the processor, the percentage of memory use, battery reserve and other technical parameters. System information is displayed in a compact, austere style. You can customize the background and font color as you like.
The app works equally well on phones and tablets. Of course, it cannot do without a small number of errors. But we hope that over time the situation will change for the better.
Aquarium
Aquarium is an animated 3D picture that imitates the landscape of the ocean floor, where colorful fish swim against the background of exotic vegetation. Double click on the screen to feed them, or click once to get their attention.
In the paid version, you can place up to 14 fish in the aquarium, change the background color, add various decorative elements, control the lighting and the movement of air bubbles in the water.
The application uses OpenGL to keep the battery to a minimum. Supported work in both portrait and landscape screen orientation.