How to Make a Video Your Wallpaper

A video wallpaper, also called a live wallpaper, makes your phone’s background move or show a short (and silent) video clip.

Wallpaper is the image in the background on your smartphone. Many types of phones come with several pre-installed options to choose from of various nature or abstract images. Some smartphones also come with a limited selection of live wallpapers. Live wallpaper is essentially a video or looped GIF used as your smartphone’s background instead of a static or non-moving image. Some common examples are floating feathers, shooting stars, and falling snow.

Many people know how to change a regular wallpaper to an image on your phone, such as a picture of your cat, Pierre Eduard, in his Aerospace France rocket ship box (because he’s convinced he’s a French cat, ahem) or maybe your children or grandchildren. However, you may not know that you can use a video you’ve filmed as a live wallpaper or even a live wallpaper from an app such as Zedge for a more interesting background for your phone.

Depending on the make and model of your Android phone, you might have an app or feature pre-installed that converts a video you take of your very handsome cat, Pierre (the not-really-French-feline), into a format that is usable as video wallpaper. If not, there are lots of options in the Play Store for apps that convert a video you’ve taken into a live wallpaper, such as VideoWall or Video Live Wallpaper. If you’re using an app, the app will typically offer to set your video as your wallpaper for you in one quick tap.

If your phone comes with this feature installed without the need to download a separate app, here are the steps:

Note: The directions below should apply no matter who made your Android phone: Samsung, Google, Huawei, Xiaomi, etc.

1. Navigate to Settings > Display > Wallpaper
2. You’ll be presented with a list of choices, such as Gallery, Live Wallpapers, Photos, Wallpapers, and Zedge. Note: If you have Zedge installed or another wallpaper app, those most often show up at the bottom of this list. If you want to use a live wallpaper you have downloaded from Zedge or another app, you will find it either in the Live Wallpapers list or under that app instead of Gallery in the next step.
3. Select Gallery. You will see a list of folders from your Gallery such as Camera Roll, Download, Wallpaper, Video, and so on. Navigate to the folder in your Gallery where your video clip is saved.
4. Once you find the video clip you want to use as your background, click on the thumbnail and it will take you to a preview screen.
5. Click the check mark or Set wallpaper. Depending on the manufacturer and model of your phone, this could be at the top or the bottom of the screen.
6. Tap the home button to return to your home screen and view your video wallpaper.

iPhone 6S or 6S+ or newer can use video wallpaper! You can use any video clip you’ve captured using the Live Photo feature in your iPhone’s camera app. Here are the steps:

1. Navigate to Settings > Wallpaper
2. Click Choose a new wallpaper
3. You’ll be presented with 4 options: Dynamic, Stills, Live, or you can choose an item from your photo folders. Select Live.
4. Choose the live wallpaper (aka live photo) you would like to use by clicking on it. Adjust the preview image as desired by pinching or spreading to zoom in or out. When you’re ready to set it, there will be three options at the bottom of your screen: Still, Perspective, and Live. Click Live.
5. Press your home button to exit menu and look at your new video/live wallpaper.

Make sure to check out our deeper dive into iOS wallpapers options.