Why it matters to you
Who doesn’t need a fresh background every now and then? Google’s app is one of the best out there, and new choices are always welcome.
Google’s Wallpapers app is one of the best destinations for Android users to find amazing looking backgrounds, and it just got better. Google pushed out an update Wednesday adding a slew of new high-resolution images to its database between a number of categories, from landscapes to cityscapes, as well as the iconic “Earth view” photography the company popularized on Android.
There’s no changelog attached to the update, but for users who frequent Google’s app and regularly like to switch out their background for something fresh and new, the changes will be apparent. Wallpapers also packs a daily feature, which automatically swaps the phone’s background every day for another in a given category.
Users are able to set different wallpapers for home and lock screens as well — but only if they’re running Android 7.0 Nougat, according to the app’s page on Google Play.
There are plenty of Android apps available that feature high-quality photos as wallpapers, but there is also a glut of bad options as well, with incessant ads and backgrounds that aren’t properly cropped or sized to your device’s screen resolution. The best ones, like Backdrops and Pixels, for example, have curated collections — but many cost money, and are quite limited. Google’s Wallpapers is unique, because it offers an excellent selection of photos sourced from Google Earth and Google+ for free.
The update also brings bug fixes and interface improvements to Wallpapers, including the ability to force a wallpaper change with the refresh button if you have the daily wallpaper feature turned on.
You can download Wallpapers here, although in typical Google fashion it may take time for the updated version to reach your device as it rolls out to all users. The app is compatible with Android devices running 4.1 Jelly Bean and higher.