How to turn an image into a wallpaper on Android

Do you have a favorite picture that you took with your smartphone that you would like to use as a wallpaper? This tutorial shows how to customize any image (even a wide one) on Android.

Good to know: Check out the best live weather wallpaper apps for Android here.

How to edit images for wallpapers

Before we continue, remember that you should make any necessary visual adjustments before setting an image as wallpaper: make sure it has the right hue, filter, saturation, etc. The correct arrangement will come later.

Most users would probably use a photo editing app to make these adjustments. If you'd rather not install another app on your device, you can always use Google Photos, an app that comes pre-installed on most Android phones.

Open the app and then select your image. Tap on the Edit icon at the bottom of your phone's screen to display your phone's wallpaper options.

Make any adjustments you want, such as: B. Brightness, saturation, lighting and colors. Finally, tap Save copy to save your edited image to Google Photos for later use

Tip: Need to quickly edit a screenshot on your phone? Read on to learn how.

How to set an image as wallpaper on Android

In the past, setting a wallpaper on Android was a bit cumbersome: instead of cropping images that were too wide, the system spread them across multiple home screens. A wallpaper now remains stationary by default, and Android offers quick and easy ways to crop the size of the image.

Method 1: Using the Background Setting

On your Android phone, long press the home screen and select Wallpaper & Style from the menu. On some phone models, the option may just be background.

You will see the pre-installed wallpapers on your device. Tap on More wallpapers.

Press My photos.

note: Images you download from apps or your browser appear in your folders gallery app. You can also find it in the Downloads folder about yours files app.

Select the image you want to use as the background on your phone. Once your image (portrait or landscape) is selected, a preview of your wallpaper will appear on your screen. You can move the image left or right to better center it on your display. You can even zoom in and out on the image.

Note that a landscape image will be cropped when you use it. You can try moving the image. However, if you want your wallpaper to contain as much detail from the original image as possible, use the following methods.

Once you've arranged it correctly, tap Set wallpaper Click the button or click the checkmark to apply it as wallpaper. Choose whether you want to apply the wallpaper to the home screen, lock screen, or both.

Tip: Learn how to organize your photos by creating albums in Google Photos.

Method 2: From Gallery

Launch any gallery app on your phone and open the photo you want to set as wallpaper. For this guide, we'll be using Google's Gallery app.

Tap the three-dot icon in the top right corner.

Choose Use as.

Choose Photos wallpapers or Gallery wallpaper. On some phones the option will simply appear background. Customize the wallpaper using gestures and choose whether you want it for the home screen or lock screen.

If you use Google Photos as your gallery app, you can also set your wallpaper there. Open the image and press the three dots in the top right corner.

Slide your fingers over the options below the image and tap Use as.

Choose either Gallery wallpaper or Photos wallpapers.

For your information: How to add a different wallpaper to each of your Android home screens.

How to set an image as a wallpaper

If you plan to use an image in landscape orientation and the methods described above do not produce a satisfactory result, you may want to experiment with some workarounds.

Expand Wallpaper.

If your landscape image seems too enlarged or you want to retain more detail, we recommend this trick. Using an app like Snapseed, you can expand your image vertically to fit the screen.

Open the image in the app and click “Next.” Tools at the bottom.

Choose Expand from the options.

Drag the bar at the top of the image to expand it vertically. You can use this option multiple times in a row (depending on your image). When it's ready, press the checkmark icon at the bottom right.

Now you can use the edited image as a wallpaper. Compare the difference with the wallpaper created with the original landscape image.

For your information: Take Android customization to the next level by creating custom icons for your apps.

Add a frame to your wallpaper

An alternative is to add frames/borders to your image so that the landscape image fits perfectly on your screen. Use an app like InShot, although most photo editing apps should work too.

Open the landscape image in InShot and tap canvas at the bottom.

Choose a portrait format. Your image will automatically be added to the top of the canvas.

The background behind your image is created by zooming in and blurring part of your image. This guarantees that all the details of your image are preserved.

You can also zoom in or out on your image. When you're done, tap the checkmark button and press Saveand set the image as wallpaper.

Related: If you are an iOS user, check out these websites to find cool wallpapers for your iPhone or iPad.

What if you wanted to have a different Android wallpaper every day? You may want to try these wallpaper changing apps that can help you update your Android daily. For those who want to make their wallpapers even more unique, we recommend checking out this list of photo editors that use AI to enhance images.

Photo credit: Freepik. All screenshots by Alexandra Arici.

Alexandra has a passion for mobile technology and can often be found fiddling with a smartphone from an unknown company. She started her career in technology journalism in 2013 after working as a middle school teacher for a few years. Constantly driven by curiosity, Alexandra wants to know how things work and share this knowledge with everyone.