You Can Create a ‘Live’ Wallpaper on Your Phone

If you’re tired of static wallpapers, you can add a bit of flair to your smartphone by choosing a live wallpaper—that is, using a Live Photo, gif, or short video as your wallpaper. Before you opt to go live, though, you should know it comes with a small hit to your phone’s battery life, and on older phones, it may also impact performance. But if that’s not a concern for you, here’s how you can make live wallpapers on iPhone and on Android.

How to make a live wallpaper on your iPhone

You can easily convert any of your Live Photos into a live wallpaper on your iPhone. Every photo you capture is a Live Photo by default, and you can check this easily by opening the Camera app and looking at the icon in the top-right corner. If the circular icon is yellow, Live Photos is enabled. If it’s white and has a diagonal line striking through, it’s disabled. With Live Photo enabled, you can click photos and convert any of them into a live wallpaper.

It’s also pretty easy to see your collection of Live Photos on the iPhone. Open the Photos app and go to the Albums tab. Scroll down and select Live Photos. You can select any of these photos, tap the Share icon, and hit Use as Wallpaper to make it a live wallpaper.

You can also do this by going to Settings > Wallpaper on your iPhone. Here, you can select Add New Wallpaper, tap Photos, and hit Live Photo. Select your preferred photo and set it as the background.

Convert videos or gifs to Live Photos

It’s also possible to convert videos or gifs into Live Photos. Apps such as Giphy and TikTok allow you to save media as a Live Photo, and you can use these as live wallpapers on your iPhone. There are some services that let you convert any video into a Live Photo, which allows you a bit more freedom with the choices. Both IntoLive and VideoToLive are good apps for this.

(You can also turn your iPhone Live Photos into a video.)

Create a live wallpaper on Android

To make a live wallpaper on Android, you can use one of many third-party apps. I tried a few and liked Video to Wallpaper the best. It’s fast, easy to use, and doesn’t bombard you with full-screen ads. Once you’ve installed the app, open it, and tap the green + option in the bottom-right corner. This will show a small menu, where you can type a name for the wallpaper and hit Choose to select a video from your phone. Once that’s done, select Video to Wallpaper on the next page, and you’ll see your preferred video as the wallpaper on your phone.