Animated lock screens are a cute gimmick. Your phone comes loaded with a few default options. But if you want to make your own on Android or iOS, you'll need a third-party app.

Nobody likes a boring home screen. And while you get a number of default options within Android to pretty up your device, you can get a lot more creative if you build your own live wallpaper. KLWP Live Wallpaper Maker is the perfect "the sky is the limit" app, for its usefulness is directly correlated to how much time you're willing to spend in it, making the live wallpaper of your dreams.

The problem with using a picture of your significant other as your phone wallpaper is that it's awkward to ever change it away. Luckily my wife just changed her lock screen from a photo of me to a photo of a baby we like, so I'm changing mine to one of the cool maps offered by Alvar Carto.

If you can't afford to buy the Galaxy S9, there are plenty of ways to spruce up your current device. We already showed you how to get Samsung's new auto-translation and makeup try-on features on any phone. Now you can add the S9's exclusive wallpapers to the list.

Android: Tired of your boring old smartphone wallpaper? This new Android app can take your current location (or any other spot on earth) and turn it into the background image on your phone. It's available now for $2.79 on Google Play.

Learning a foreign language is hard.

If you're bored of that useless, still image for your desktop wallpaper, Live Desktop is a Mac app that gives you a selection of animated themes to choose from.

Mac: Sick of using those boring, static images as your wallpaper. If you want to spice things up a bit, the GIFPaper app can set any GIF as a wallpaper.

Gone are the days of the bright yellow wallpaper that you remember from your grandmothers house. It's time to give wallpaper another chance as an alternative to paint. Here's how to choose a wallpaper that will work best in your home.

Lifehacker reader Pushkar submitted this good-looking desktop, and we love the look of it. Useful as a second screen or when it's time to work, here's how he set it up.

With the holidays about to fully hit, many of us are hitting the road this week. Whether you're headed out or staying in, here are some scenic vistas you can use to dress up your desktop.

Road trips offer time to take in the scenery and experience new vistas (no, not that one). As such, they're an excellent source of beautiful imagery you can add to your desktop.

A new version of DisplayFusion is out, with heaps of new online wallpaper sources (including Astronomy Picture of the Day, Google+, Facebook and Imgur), along with improvements for monitor splitting. The update is free for DisplayFusion Pro users, and new licences are 40 per cent off through the holidays.

Summer is finally here! Let's celebrate by escaping to our own private island with this collection of desktop wallpapers.

Whatever your ideal type of travel is, these wallpapers can remind you of past trips or help you dream up future ones.

Nothing spurs the imagination quite like a good myth. Today's wallpapers invoke the power of history's greatest stories to bring the myths of yore to your desktop.

Zen is both a practice and a philosophy. The word itself, translated as "meditative state", suggests focus, calm and simplicity. That makes Zen-themed images perfect for your desktop background when you're getting into the zone.

Tree-t yourself to some trans-seasonal glory with these leaf-heavy wallpapers.

Google officially announced Android 5.0 last week and along with it came a new developer preview. Included in that preview are a slew of pretty new wallpapers for your phone-decorating pleasure.