Best live wallpapers for Android and how to use them

If you’ve grown tired of static wallpaper images by now, why not give them movement with animated backgrounds.

Advances in application development have allowed developers to create high-quality animated backgrounds for mobile, so let’s see them, but not without first reminding you that we also have an article updated weekly with the best mobile wallpapers of the moment.

How to use live wallpapers

Before entering fully to see our selection of animated backgrounds for mobile, it is worth remembering how these personalization applications are used. When using an animated background on Android, we must access the wallpaper selection menu, almost always available through a long press on a space on the home screen.

Once inside, there are two types of menus. The first one shows the images in a scroll or horizontal list format, with the animated backgrounds at the end, in a separate section. While in other layers of customization, we can find this type of wallpaper and the rest of the static images. In any case, it will be enough to find the one we want to use and apply it to the home screen.

Animated wallpapers: the best for your mobile

• Diffuse
• Skyline
• Forest Live Wallpaper
• Rainpaper
• Chrooma
• Waiver
• Paperland Pro
• Minima Live Wallpaper
• Fractal Live Wallpaper
• Lines Live Wallpaper
• Pixelscapes
• Vortex
• 3D Mountain
• Rad Walls
• Wall St
• Particle Live Wallpaper
• Wallow
• ShaderPaper

Now, we will see the best-animated wallpapers for Android that can be downloaded in the Google Play Store.

Among the collection, you can find funds of all kinds. Many of them are free, although others are paid.

Diffuse

Diffuse is the wallpaper in the image at the top of this article, and I have personally been using it for several months now.

Take inspiration from Apple Music by obtaining the colors of the cover or image of the audio or video track played on the device in real-time to generate an animated wallpaper that changes color dynamically.

In addition, it has customization options that allow, for example, to show the sound hits through effects on the wallpaper itself.

Skyline

We have already told you on occasion about Skyline, and we even dedicated an article to tell you about this animated wallpaper. It is an app that simulates the animated backgrounds of Google’s Pixel 2s, which show real locations, manually chosen, in a three-dimensional overhead view, with movements and turns depending on the user’s interaction with the screen.

Among its characteristics, we find the following:

• The world in 3D thanks to Mapbox: Enter the name or coordinates of the place you want on your screen.
• Changing scenes: Animation when you unlock the phone or change the screen in the launcher.
• ‘Parallax’ effect: Depth effect when you move the phone.
• Theme API support: In Android 8.1 and later, the system will change color depending on the main hue of the chosen background image.

Forest Live Wallpaper

If you are looking for a minimalist and relaxing live wallpaper, Forest Live Wallpaper is your best choice. Once activated, it will show the image of a forest that will change throughout the day, depending on the time and the weather.

On the other hand, it is also possible to select the colors manually, in case you want to prevent them from changing as the hours go by—a simple, beautiful, and free background.

Rainpaper

Although Rainpaper is not an animated wallpaper app, it does bring movements and effects to our home screen. It is a tool that allows us to add meteorological phenomena to the start, whatever the wallpaper image we are using.

Unlike many other apps of this type, the effects that Rainpaper shows are of high quality, and they are even configurable, so you can choose the amount of rain, snow, or clouds that appear on the home screen.

Among other features, we find the depth effect according to the ‘Parallax’ movement, the possibility of synchronizing the effects with the weather, or choosing the background images from external sources, such as Reddit or Unsplash.

Chrooma Live Wallpaper

One of the great classics when it comes to animated wallpapers for Android is Chrooma. It is an app that offers us different patterns based on the Material Design philosophy, with color palettes customizable by the user.

The patterns will change their shape each time we return to the home screen –if we activate the corresponding option–, and we can choose between twelve totally different shapes. In addition, the app includes a power-saving mode to prevent the wallpaper from consuming excessive battery life.

Waiver

Another totally free animated wallpaper worth trying is Wavero. This Live Wallpaper is based on animations of different patterns in real-time, with countless colors and effects that appear when you touch the screen.

Paperland Pro Live Wallpaper

Paperland is one of those classics that does not go out of style. This animated wallpaper makes us travel to a world of paper, in which the different elements will move, creating a small animated universe on our home screen.

You can choose between twenty-three different themes, each with a totally different theme. In addition, if we wish, the wallpaper will change the style depending on the weather conditions in our location.

Minima Live Wallpaper

As its name suggests, Minima Live Wallpaper is a minimalist animated wallpaper that offers endless shapes and elements in motion in different colors and styles.

It has more than thirty different themes, all of them created by hand. The “Pro” version, however, offers us more than ninety styles, all of them with movement and depth effects depending on the movement of the device and the user’s interaction with the screen.

Fractal Live Wallpaper

Fractal Live Wallpaper interesting application that brings a polygonal landscape to our home screen, customizable and with movements that offer a most pleasant three-dimensional experience.

In the free variant of Fractal Live Wallpaper, we have 4 different themes to choose from, each with different colors and styles. However, paying for the “Pro” version will unlock 20 more themes, as well as use images stored on the device as the source for the color mosaic.

Lines Live Wallpaper

Dozens of colorful “worms” move around the home screen of your mobile. Lines Live Wallpaper is a recent app, which has already managed to place itself among the best in its category, thanks to the infinity of customization options it offers that allow you to modify any aspect of the wallpaper.

Pixelscapes Wallpaper

For lovers of landscapes with Pixel Art style, Pixelscapes is the best live wallpaper app on Google Play. It has several predefined landscapes, although there is the possibility of modifying the appearance of some of them. Its creators also ensure that the app has been optimized to work perfectly without affecting battery consumption.

Vortex

Without a doubt, Vortex is one of the most original animated wallpapers that we have ever tried. Its design is based on particles that flow across the screen. Still, where ital really lies in the fact that to move from one side to another, Vortex relies on the Google Awareness API so that the movements refer to the state of the meteorological weather in the location where the user is. Therefore, we will see the particles differently depending on the time, location, time of day, and other factors.

3D Mountain Landscape

Perfect animated background for lovers of minimalist wallpapers.

2D Wallpaper allows you to have a beautiful two-dimensional landscape on your home screen, whose colors change with the passing of the hours, to show stars at night or sunrise in the morning.

The app is free and contains different predefined styles to choose from. In addition, it offers the option of creating our own styles and adding elements such as snow.

Rad Walls

If your thing is the 80s aesthetic with a retro wave design, Rad Walls is the app you need. It contains a large collection of backgrounds of this type, the advantage of which is low energy consumption. Each wallpaper uses a six-second video clip and therefore does not need to generate 3D graphics.

Wall St Stylized Street Maps as Live Wallpapers

If you like your city so much that you even want to have it as your wallpaper, Wall St is the app you should download today. You only need to select the location you want to use as the background. The app will create a two-dimensional map of different colors –selected by the user–, which will be used as a background image, in motion, and with various effects.

Particle Live Wallpaper

Another extremely customizable wallpaper, but one that does not neglect the minimalist style, is Particle Live Wallpaper. In it, we will see how various particles of the color we choose to move randomly throughout the screen, at the speed we want, and with the chosen background.

Wallow

Probably one of the most stylish and well-designed live wallpapers on Google Play.

Wallow is an animated background that shows gradient colors that represent the tones of the sky and that changes with the passing of the hours based on the position of the sun and the existing light.

ShaderPaper – Live Wallpaper Designer

The last app in this selection is probably the most comprehensive live wallpaper app out there. ShaderPaper is an app with which you can generate your own animated backgrounds from 120 shaders or predefined templates based on the OpenGL graphics engine. It will be possible to combine to create unique and totally original animations.

Logically, it is not an app intended for those who want something simple and easy to use, but rather a tool aimed at those willing to spend several hours creating their own wallpaper and modifying every detail to the millimeter.

Google Play | ShaderPaper

If you prefer static backgrounds, feel free to visit our selection of the best wallpapers for Android mobiles.