Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. Guides
  4. Products

The best wallpaper apps for Android and iOS

Jackie Dove
Simon Hill
By and

Smartphone wallpapers don’t just blend into the background, like the wallpaper on your wall. You’re constantly looking at it, and if it’s not something you admire — or you get bored with the current picture — it’s very easy to change. Changing the wallpaper on your phone’s home screen can give it a whole new feel. You can always choose a photo from your Camera Roll or Gallery to use a cover image, but consider a professionally designed wallpaper that fits your phone perfectly. Wallpaper apps specialize in collecting creative smartphone background images and offer many choices for free. If you’re specifically after an animated image to use on your Android device, then check out the best free live Android wallpapers. You can always download one of our Digital Trends wallpapers if you want to show us some love. Otherwise, here are our picks for the best wallpaper apps for Android or iOS.

Recommended Videos

Zedge

Zedge is an all-purpose wallpaper app that offers millions of HD wallpapers, live wallpapers, stickers, and alarm sounds and ringtones for your Android phone — just search and you will find. With an abundant supply of free backgrounds, it supports most common screen sizes. You can even auto-select a new rotating background at designated intervals and customize them with filters and stickers. Live wallpapers won’t drain your battery and only play once. Ringtones and alarm sounds are a bonus.

Related

Vibe Aesthetic Wallpaper 4‪K

Vibe
John Velasco / Digital Trends

Get ready for the Vibe aesthetic to deliver an atmospheric effect to your smartphone’s home or lock screen. The app features daily updates, unique licensed content, and 26 specific categories to choose from in both HD and 4K. A subscription gives you unlimited access to the full library of wallpapers, which are constantly updated.

Backgrounds HD

There’s an enormous variety of different images in this free Android wallpaper app. You can search by category, see what’s new, or even check out what’s popular with other people. A handy search function helps you find the exact image you’re in the mood for.

WLPPR

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Featuring a gorgeous array of satellite imagery, this wallpaper app for the iPhone will remind you just how beautiful our planet can be. It offers a spectacular selection of HD backgrounds with information about their content and links to the scientific sources. They come in parallax sizes or as static images.

Unique Wallpaper

This eclectic collection of HD and 4K wallpapers is licensed via the public domain or uploaded by artists, and a few taps get you high-resolution wallpapers in your favorite genre. The clutter-free, minimalistic interface helps to save battery and resources as well as find the exact wallpaper you seek. The app’s dynamic loading algorithm saves the data if you have not downloaded any wallpapers recently.

Vellum

Vellum Wallpaper‪s
Image used with permission by copyright holder

If you’re seeking a carefully curated selection of classy, artistic imagery to use as your iPhone backdrop, then you’ve come to the right place. The app features a new, limited daily wallpaper that expires at the end of each day, but most of the wallpapers are organized into themed packs. You can preview how each image appears on your home and lock screens, and a blur tool injects another level of creativity to your home screen.

Tapet

If you’re wary of using up too much mobile data with a constantly updating live wallpaper, then try an automatic wallpaper generator like Tapet. It uses math to create new Material Design-friendly patterns and color schemes directly on your device, so your home screen will continue to evolve even when you’re offline. All you have to do is choose the starter pattern, colors, and interval between each new image, and the app will take it from there.

Everpix HD Wallpapers

Everpix Cool Wallpapers
Image used with permission by copyright holder

This free wallpaper app for iOS offers a broad variety of wallpapers organized into all sorts of categories, from cars and sports to flowers and fashion. You’ll find plenty of optimized backgrounds that work with your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch. The app vets every wallpaper and adjusts it to fit every screen size while its chosen images reveal the colors of your screen according to your taste.

Pixel Road Wallpaper

Who can resist a never-ending cartoon featuring your favorite pixel art hero(ine)? The Pixel Road Wallpaper turns real-time data like your current time and weather conditions into an action-packed adventure for your mobile desktop. You just have to pick your 8-bit character from Nyan Cat to Vehicle Cat, make some decisions on its environment, then sit back and enjoy the ride.

Live Wallpapers for Me

Live Wallpapers for M‪e‬
Image used with permission by copyright holder

This wallpaper app features animated wallpapers. Your options are split into various categories like Sci-Fi, Nature, Sports, and Time-Lapse. In addition to time-lapse scenes and cute pets, you can observe powerful cosmic explosions on your lock screen. The Live Wallpaper Maker tool lets you transform videos into live wallpapers on your device’s Lock Screen

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Jackie Dove
Jackie Dove
Contributor
Jackie is an obsessive, insomniac tech writer and editor in northern California. A wildlife advocate, cat fan, and photo app…
What is NFC? How it works and what you can do with it
NFC settings on an Android phone.

Near field communication (herein referred to as NFC) is a smartphone and wearable technology that lives in the shadows. Silently operating around the clock, NFC is relied upon for several device functions, with wireless transaction systems like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay being one of the biggest. But this cool tech can do far more than let you pay for a Twix with your iPhone. 

Here’s everything you need to know about NFC technology, and the many ways you can use the wireless protocol today.
What is NFC, and how does it work?
NFC, which is short for near-field communication, is a technology that allows devices like phones and smartwatches to exchange small bits of data with other devices and read NFC-equipped cards over relatively short distances. The technology behind NFC is very similar to radio-frequency identification (RFID) commonly used in the security cards and keychain fobs that you likely already use to get into your office or gym. In fact, NFC is an evolution of RFID that offers more advanced features and better security, but the two technologies still share a lot of things in common.

Read more
10 iPhone productivity apps you need to download right now
iPhone 14 Pro showing the Moon always-on screen, held in a man's hand.

If you're anything like us, your Apple iPhone is a beast with multiple uses. It can go from an email-firing machine to a dedicated Netflix device in seconds and then into playing video games just as fast. But just because it can do all of those things doesn't mean it couldn't stand a little fine-tuning when it comes to optimizing it for productivity.

"Productivity" can mean a lot of things, whether it's sending emails, making tweaks to documents and spreadsheets, or just planning for your day ahead. Whatever being productive means to you, there are apps that will make it easier. Here are 10 iPhone productivity apps you need to download today.
Todoist
The best to-do app

Read more
Best iPhone 15 deals: How to get Apple’s latest iPhone for free
The display on a green iPhone 15.

The iPhone 15 is Apple’s current flagship phone, and it’s also one of its most popular phones. It’s come storming out of the gate since its release and has skyrocketed to make our ranks of the best phones. Its popularity can make it difficult to find iPhone 15 deals, but there are some out there. We’ve rounded up the best iPhone 15 deals going on right now, and while most of them entail trading in a device for savings, trade-in value is very high and could land you a free iPhone 15 if you’re trading in the right device. We’ve got all of those details below, so read onward and start saving on a new Apple iPhone 15.
Today's best iPhone 15 deals

: Get up to $830 in savings when you trade in a similar device. Also included is 3 free months of Apple TV+, Apple Fitness+, Apple Music, and 4 free months of Apple Arcade.
: Save up to $830 with device trade-in and inclusion of Verizon Unlimited Plus or Unlimited Ultimate plans.
: Save up to $830 via 24 monthly bill credits when you add a line on a qualifying plan and trade in an eligible device.
: Save up to $700 when you trade in an eligible device and commit to an AT&T Unlimited plan of more than $76 per month.

Read more