Live wallpapers, a feature of Android that lets you set an animated or interactive scene as your phone’s background, are a great way to spruce up an otherwise static home screen. While the first crop tended to suffer from technical shortcomings such as excessive battery drain and poor performance, live wallpapers have come a long way in the time since.
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The newest offerings are eye-catching and lush, providing fluid and attractive backgrounds that feature everything from simple textures to quirky spaceships that quietly chug through the void of space. Here are our picks for the best free live wallpapers for Android so you can spice up your smartphone or tablet backdrop without having to dip into your wallet.
Setting live wallpapers
Before you see what beautiful backgrounds Android’s developer community has to offer, you should know how to apply them. Luckily, the process isn’t challenging. The first step is installing a live wallpaper (or several) from the Google Play Store. Once that’s done, you’re nearly home free.
Step 1: Press and hold on any home screen.
Step 2: Tap Wallpapers in the resulting menu.
Step 3: Tap Live Wallpapers.
Step 4: Select a live wallpaper from the resulting list.
Step 5: Tap the gear icon in the upper-left corner to adjust the live wallpaper’s settings.
Step 6: Tap Set Wallpaper to set the live wallpaper as your background.