Top 8 Best Wallpaper Apps Android

If there is one area where Android users can truly boast superiority over iPhone users, it’s customization. The ability to truly customize your device to the point where you have control over just about every facet of it, from the apps that are loaded up on startup to the background, icons, and everything else. This level of customization means that when you look for wallpaper apps on the App Store, for example, you find next to nothing, whereas the same search in the Play Store brings up a whole host of interesting and exciting prospects. But of these prospects, which are the best wallpaper apps that Android users can currently take advantage of? Well, I’ve noticed a definite leaning in this area towards something more minimal and conceptual, with many of these wallpaper apps offering things like single tone backgrounds, blurred backgrounds, and basic patterns that are generated within the app and are therefore unique and dynamic – rather than simply images that can be downloaded and pasted to your screen.

8. 500 Firepaper (Free)

I guess the best place to start when seeking out the best wallpaper apps and custom background apps for Android devices is 500 Firepaper. Unlike many of the better wallpaper apps on Android, 500 Firepaper deals solely with photos, which it gets from an online photography community known as 500px. This alone means you know the quality of the photos will be good, and there’s obviously a lot of attraction when it comes to being able to cycle through different images automatically, and getting a new and beautiful background each time you pick up your phone. These picks aren’t entirely random, however, with the app allowing you to choose which category each wallpaper comes from, how often these images update, and that kind of thing. – Download from Google Play

7. ZEDGE (Free)

Customization generally comes in the form of things like wallpapers, icons and of course ringtones, and as such Zedge looks to cover at least two of these bases with its own app. Zedge is currently used by millions each month, which is great in that you know that it is vouched for, and the amount of content is so immense that you’ll never have a hard time picking stuff. It also means that you get a lot of free content, with wallpapers that are optimized for our screen size so you won’t have to worry about adjusting them or whatever. – Download from Google Play

6. Muzei Live Wallpaper (Free)

As with just about any category of app, there will be those that set themselves apart through a specific feature or “gimmick” that alone can spike user interest. Muzei Live Wallpaper is one of these, and sets itself apart due to the content of the wallpapers that it gives you, the user, access to. The word Muzei means museum in Russian, and the app more than lives up to its name by cycling through famous pieces of art to give you a different backround each day. The app might be one to consider for the cultured few among our readers, but there is also the option to have it pick photos from your personal gallery rather than download images of famous art. The blurring here will allow you to see your icons easily enough, and a simply double tap will remove this blurring if you want to view one of your wallpapers in detail. – Download from Google Play

5. HPSTR (Free)

Shapes over images is currently a trend, apparently, and we won’t deny that it does look good. The HPSTR app looks to take advantage of this specific trend by confining its custom wallpapers to a specific format. That is, it will pull photos from sources such as Reddit, 500px and Unsplash, then will allow you to impose your own geometric creation on top of it. This may sound ridiculous, and in many ways it is, but the process is fun and the results are actually surprisingly easy on the eye. The app is free to download, but a paid upgrade will unlock a host of extra features when it comes to customization. – Download from Google Play

4. Minima Live Wallpaper (Free)

Minima Live Wallpaper takes full advantage of the parallax feature on newer devices, which basically just makes it look as though the backround is three dimensional, since it moves with the tilting of your phone. It’s a nice touch, but Minima takes this further with a set of wallpapers that react to this. There is a minimalist angle to the design here which is very pleasing, though the hand made or crafty feel to some of the wallpapers might turn some users away. The free version gives you around 35 themes to use, with a further 90 available through upgrading so you shouldn’t then have any trouble when it comes to picking a designt that suits your particular mood on any given day. – Download from Google Play

3. Wallmax (Free)

Wallmax is somehow one of the more overlooked among the best wallpaper apps for Android, which is odd since the app itself is highly polished and well worth looking at. While the images might take a while to load, it’s a great source of unique backgrounds that you might not find when checking out other wallpaper apps. Again, the menu here is not the best and doesn’t bring up much in the way of selection on first glance. A simple search will fix this, bringing up a wide range of options that are unique to the app. – Download from Google Play

2. Tapet (Free)

Again, we are huge fans of the minimalist design here at Top 8 and one of the best wallpaper apps when it comes to this particular angle is Tapet. Having a wallpaper app that downloads different images to your phone can be great, especially if these are pulled from a source that is reliable, but even then, I’ve found that many of these photos are way too specific. I like a background that doesn’t interfere with what I’m doing, and a background that I feel I have created, and Tapet certainly ticks both of these particular boxes. The app basically gives you a variety of different colors and patterns, then lets you arrange these as you wish with simple swipe gestures. It really gives you the feeling that you are designing something yourself, and the result is more unique backgrounds and a more personal wallpaper for your device. – Download from Google Play

1. Plastexo (Free)

As we mentioned at the outset, while photos are nice and even blurring them and adding geometric shapes can provide an interesting effect, we do prefer wallpapers that are generated within the app and as such, tend to lean in the more minimalist direction. As such, picking the best wallpaper apps for Android would only result in a minimalist winner, and today that winner is Plastexo. If you’re familiar with Android designer Mowmo then you’ll know what to expect here. There are only 110 wallpapers to pick from which is a number that might turn some users off when it comes to the amount of choice you have, but we’ve found that this is more than enough when it comes to minimal design options. – Download from Google Play