Download Free Live Wallpapers for Droid / Android Phones and Tablets, Review Guide to 276 downloads!

Live Wallpaper Guide Introduction

UPDATED: 20-JAN-2012 purge in progress, purged and tested all links up to E/F.

For latest updates that had not made it into this hub, please see Android App Quick Review RSS feed, which is at the end of this hub.

This is a part of "Android Customization Guide" series. Feel free to visit it if you want to learn more about how to Customize an Android device.

The Android OS 2.1-update 1 was sent to all Motorola Droid users in mid-April 2010, and with it came the ability to use "Live Wallpapers".

Live Wallpapers are wallpapers (backgrounds) that are, well, live! Your computer desktop has a wallpaper, but they don't move. Live wallpaper moves, as they are essentially small programs. And there are all sorts of live wallpapers free in the Android Marketplace. Here are quick reviews. If you spot any good ones released since, let me know via a comment, and I'll add it!

Remember, live wallpapers are apps (programs), and thus, they have to run in your smartphone / tablet, and can slow your phone down and use up battery more quickly. Loading too many of them can also use up space on your smart phone. As the Android phones don't exactly have great battery life, Live Wallpapers are great for showing off, but not so great in actual usage.

If you rather learn about static wallpapers, see my other hub: "Must-Try Wallpaper Utilities for Android Phones".

NOTE: "Video loop" live wallpapers will not be included. They usually come from dubious sources, do NOT qualify as fair use, have HUGE footprint (usually several megabytes) and taps the CPU hard. There may be a few remnants from earlier reviews. No new ones will be added.

NOTE: "Spinning cube" variations and "spinning logo" variations will no longer be included either. Those can be cranked out by the dozen using a single template. There may be a few left over from previous reviews, but no new ones will be added.

NOTE: Only live wallpapers marked as "compatible with Android 2.2 or later" will be included from now on. There may be a few remnants from earlier tests.

NOTE: Any live wallpaper embedded with "Airpush" ads will be marked so and PENALIZED!

WARNING about Live Wallpaper Support

While the Android OS 2.1 and later support live wallpaper, your "home" app (the launcher that comes up when you press the home button) must support live wallpaper as well. The native one does, and Helix Launcher does. However, Home ++ does not (as of a while back, it may have changed). You may want to read my review of free home replacement apps for Moto Droid (and other Android 2.X devices).

Also, not all Android devices support Live Wallpaper, even with Android OS 2.X upgrade. HTC Hero, even with Android 2.1, does not seem to support live wallpapers, for example, as are its cousins, like the Legend, Droid Eris, and so on. It is a hardware limitation.

However, any phone that came with Android 2.0 or later, such as Moto Droid, Droid X, Droid 2, HTC Droid Incredible, HTC Evo 4G, Samsung Galaxy S and variants (Captivate, Vibrant, and so on) and others, should be able to use live wallpaper if their "Home" app also supports it.

Live Wallpaper Utilities

Show Off (download)

If you just want to show off the live wallpaper without all your programs on top of it, just to admire the view, download "Show Off!". It clears the screen and show just your current wallpaper, nothing else.

OwnSkin

OwnSkin is essentially a simple live wallpaper editor with community contributions. You can take a static background, and add animations to it. Download what other users have contributed, and/or upload your own. The actual editing is done using a web app, but it's actually not that bad. Quite a few of existing live wallpapers in the market are packaged with Ownskin. So give it a try!

NOTE: Due to problems with some of the downloads they "offered", OwnSkin is no longer on Android market. Download directly from their website

Live Wallpaper Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some frequently asked questions regarding Live Wallpapers on Android devices

Q: How do I get live wallpapers?
A: You download them from Android Marketplace, just like any other program. Quickest way to get a specific one is to use the search function and enter the title, plus the words "live wallpaper", "live wall", "LWP", and so on

Q: Do Live wallpapers cost money?
A: Some do, some don't. I only link to the ones that are free. Some may have a paid version.

Q: Why can't I find the live wallpaper / live wall that you mentioned, in Android Marketplace?
A: Either you are not running Android OS 2.2 (Froyo), or the app is not available for your location. Some of these live walls only became available when I got Froyo update for my phone. I am including the link to Appbrain listing to make sure you can find them.

Q: How do I run live wallpapers?
A: You do not run them. Instead, go to the desktop/home screen, and tap the menu button, and you should see a button called "wallpapers". Click that, and a menu should pop up. From that menu, pick live wallpapers, then pick the specific one you want to see. You can then configure it (if available), and set it as your current wallpaper.

Q: Does live wallpaper drain battery life?
A: The smartly written ones should not do so excessively, as they should shut down when the screen turned off, and so on. However, they are programs running in the background, and will contribute to battery drain somewhat.

Q: Does Live wallpaper take up a lot of memory?
A: Some live wallpapers are known to take up 20-30 MB of RAM, even though it may only take up a 300KB in app storage. If you are short on memory, do not use live wallpapers.

Q: Why doesn't _______ live wallpaper work on my _______?
A: There are 3 requirements to use live wallpaper: compatible hardware, compatible OS, and compatible home/launcher.

a) compatible hardware -- any phone that came with Android OS 2.0 or later should work fine. Anything that came with 1.5 / 1.6 may have problems. HTC Droid Eris, Hero, Legend, Spica, and their cousins are known to have problems, even when updated to Android OS 2.X. I do not have a complete list, but basically if your phone does NOT come with Android 2.0, you may have problems.

b) compatible OS -- Android OS 2.1 (Eclair) or later can use live wallpapers

c) compatible home/launcher -- most support live wallpapers, but not all. For comparison of alternate "home" launcher apps, see my other hub.

Even then, the live wallpaper can refuse to work on your phone. Your mileage will vary. Some live wallpapers that worked on Eclair (Android 2.1) may not run on Froyo (Android 2.2).

Q: I had live wallpaper set and the screen timed out. When I unlocked the phone the live wallpaper's gone! What happened?
A: Some of the live wallpapers require a lot more CPU and memory than the older phones can provide. When the phone resumes, some programs are restarted, which can cause the phone to kill certain in-memory process to make room, thus killing the live wallpaper. To prevent this from happening, load less stuff.

Q: Does it matter how many screens I have on the desktop for the live wallpaper to work? I like how it shifts viewpoints.
A: The live wallpaper should adjust automatically to how many screens on your desktop. Shift the desktop to view a different part of the live wallpaper.

Q: What if I don't want the live wallpaper to shift when I go to another screen?
A: That's under the control of the Home / Launcher, not the live wallpaper. If your Home/Launcher offers this capability, enable it. Otherwise, some wallpaper may offer thisability under its config. Otherwise, it is not possible.

Q: How do I remove the live wallpaper I no longer want?
A: Uninstall them by finding it in Settings / Applications / Manage Applications and hit UNINSTALL

Q: How do I make my own live wallpaper?
A: Try DIY Ownskin, a live wallpaper editor.

Q: What if I want to learn more about the live wallpaper you linked?
A: Click on the download link to look at the Appbrain profile and screen shots (if any), then you can download it if you wish.

Q: Why do several live wallpapers have alternate names?
A: That'a s quirk in the Android OS. The app can be known by several names. The app package itself goes by one name. Such as com.oslwp.happy2011, which is actually "DIY Ownskin" app, which is the displayed name. However, for Live Wallpapers, there's a third name, which I will call "live wallpaper name", which is the name that appears when you open the "Live Wallpaper Picker". The "live wallpaper name" does NOT have to match "displayed name" and when that happens, I list both names.

Q: Why do you link to Appbrain? Shouldn't you link to Android Market directly?
A: When this hub first started, Android Market's website does NOT list individual apps (really, that didn't happen until early 2011). However, Appbrain did, so it was decided to link to Appbrain's profile then. Now, it's a matter of tradition.

Q: How did you pick your "Editor's Choice" Live Wallpapers?
A: It is a combination of several factors:

• it have to animated (you'd be surprised how little animation there are in some LWPs, ex; Kodama LWP)
• it has to look good (I admit this is rather arbitrary, but 3D ones really look better)
• it must not consume too much CPU or RAM (I use Watchdog and ATK to check)
• and of course, there is a personal "slant" factor in there.

Q: What if I have more questions or comments?
A: Please leave the comment or question at the end. I will reply there as well.

Live Wallpaper Reviews

The live wallpapers are listed in alphabetical order. All these are free, and I did not count those that are built-in. If I missed some, let me know. The "built-in" wallpapers are considered to be 5 out of 10 (except Maps, which is a 7 out of 10, as it actually is useful).

I can't get screenshots for all of them, my apologies, but I did personally test each and every one of them.

Live Wallpaper Starting with 0-9 (7)

3D Live Wallpaper Allurge Free -- See "Epic Android Wall A"

3D Live Wallpaper B! Free -- see "Epic Android Wall B"

3D Live Wallpaper 52 Card Free -- see "Epic Android 52 Card Free"

3D Matrix Live Wallpaper -- probably the best rendition of "Fall Rain Matrix" yet. You move forward "through" the raining matrix. Why some of the "raindrops" has a fireball, I don't know. I personally turn the fireballs off, but it's up to you. 8.5 out of 10 EDITOR'S CHOICE Download

3D Matrix II Reloaded -- another in the family, this one uses the typewriter-font as you zoom into the matrix (you can also reverse the direction and zoom back out). 8 out of 10 Download

3D Matrix III Revolution LWP-- another in the 3D Matrix family, this one have the "falling rain" morph into one of the major Matrix characters' face. 8 out of 10 Download

3D Skyrocket Live Wallpaper -- a port of "really slick screensaver" for Windows (unauthorized?) looks pretty good as you have a 3D camera roaming among the fireworks being shot into the sky. Taps CPU hard though. 7.5 out of 10. Download

3D Tunnel Live Wallpaper Lite--(updated) flies you through a spiraling 3D tunnel. you can choose the texture, the speed, and so on. Somewhat amusing, for a little while. 7 out of 10. (Paid version available) Download

8-bit Waterfall Live Wallpaper -- anime-style artsy waterfall out of some fantasy scene, just the water was animated. 5.5 out of 10 Download

8-bit Magic Castle Live Wallpa -- a couple fantasy style castles as 8-bit art, very little animation. 5.5 out of 10 Download

Live Wallpaper Starting With A (17)

aButterfly Fantasia Live Trial -- some white butterflies fly over some random blotches of color. 6 out of 10. (Paid version available) Download

About Time (also known as Color My Clock: Frozen) -- a clock that uses dots and colors to indicate the date and time. However, it seems the graphics don't quite line up correctly (6 out of 10) Download

aCircuit Board Live Trial-- [ no longer available] look at a circuit board complete with fan, visible "electricity", and a few other visual flares. The free version stops there. The pro version (cost $$$) have actual indicators. It's somewhat amusing. -- 7 out of 10

Advanced Map Live Wallpaper -- choose from a dozen different map sources, including both Google and Microsoft (multiple versions of each, including street, satellite, terrain, hybrid, etc.), hike and bike, VFR and IFR flight charts, and so on. Otherwise, same as the built-in map. 8 out of 10 Download

Android Orbit Live Wallpaper -- literally the word "Android" (in the proper font) spinning in space with various Androids and pictures of the various desserts (that matches the OS codenames) orbiting the word. 6.5 out of 10 Download

Angry Birds Demo LWP -- [no longer available] Pretty cute, has a clock, but not enough moving parts. Is that even legal, to benefit off another company's intellectual property? 6.5 out of 10.

AnimGIF Live Wallpaper -- load animated GIF as a , or even a webpage that updates itself. Speed is a little low but FPS can be adjusted upward on a faster phone. Comes with a pretty good infinite looping one. 7.5 out of 10 Download

AniPet Aquarium LiveWallpaper
AniPet Freshwater Live W.P.
Anipet Koi LiveWallpaper
Anipet Goldfish LiveWallpaper -- same idea... regular Aquarium is like the one you can buy for your desktop. Freshwater is same with freshwater fish instead. Koi Pond is from overhead, and you can drop "fish food" to get the fish to swim over and eat it. It's a multi-day eval. Full featured for a few days, then devolves into only a few fish and no options, unless you pay up. Very pretty. 7.5 out of 10 Download 1 / Download 2 / Download 3 / Download 4

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Ants Alive! Wallpaper -- if you like 3 types of ants (one at a time) climb all over your screen, this is right up your alley. You can even squish them (virtually). 7 out of 10 Download

Aquarium Live Wallpaper -- a tropical fish aquarium, very colorful, three fishes but no configuration options. A new version a month ago changed the palette so it looks a lot better. 6 out of 10 [Paid version available with config and more fish species] (also see aniPet aquariums) Download

Artemia -- a deep ocean view of weird placid creatures... Supposedly there's some secrets in the livewall (click on some of the critters). Just beware... You need a hefty phone. The preview works but the actual livewall itself only for a short time then somehow ran out of memory and killed itself on my Droid. 7.5 out of 10 (if you have a good enough phone) Download

ASCIIQuarium Live Wallpaper -- have ASCII characters animate a bunch of fish, bubbles, and more. It's somewhat amusing, but seem to tap the CPU VERY hard. (6 out of 10) Download

Asteroid Belt Live Wallpaper -- look at the sun while asteroids fly past your screen in its orbits... pretty cool looking. 7.0 out of 10 Download

Aurora Live Wallpaper Trial -- pretty good looking aurora if a bit too bright. Needs a brightness adjustment. Otherwise, good. 6.5 out of 10 Download

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Live Wallpaper Starting with B (25)

Bacon Live Wallpaper -- yes, a couple strips of bacon sizzling in the background, that's it. Kinda cute, but kinda dumb as well. 5 out of 10 (Pro version available) Download

Balloons Live! Wallpaper -- balloons floating up from below... and you can pop them. 6.5 out of 10 Download

Bamboo Forest Live Wallpaper -- hand-drawn style bamboo forest, misty, with a bit of sprites flying around (or is that lightning bugs?) no real config available, unless you get the paid version. Taps the CPU pretty hard. Call it... 7 out of 10 Download

BasicWall -- a simple LWP that has a static background, a clock, and battery indicator. You can change the font (if you have any). 6.5 out of 10 Download

Be My Valentine LiveWallpaper -- some hearts fly around the screen and you can click on it "pop" the heart and reveal a quotation about love. Fits the occasion. 7 out of 10 Download

Beach LWP -- sandy beach, palm tree, clouds, clear day... relaxing, but not much there. 6.5 out of 10 Download

Beautilful Heart Sparkling LWP -- video loop wallpaper, boring! AIRPUSH!!!!! Download

Beautiful Wave / Romantic Wave Live Wall -- set a "time" as theme (dawn, morning, noon, afternoon, dusk, night...) and have bubbles float up from below... rather calming. The "water level" is your battery level too. 7 out of 10 Download

Bezier - Live Wallpaper -- the color cycling is weird, and the settings don't seem to do much. I guess I just don't get this one, even with the config options. 4 out of 10. Download

Billiards Live Wallpaper -- have a billiards table (not "pool"), and have the balls react to your tilt. The balls are oval on the Moto Droid, and that is rather annoying. 5 out of 10 Download

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Binary Clock Wallpaper Lite -- Yep, true binary block, with just a few lighted dots... If you can read it at a glance, you are even more geeky than I am. 5.5 out of 10 (NOTE: There are quite a few of these, link is to merely one of them) (Paid version available) Download

Birds Live Wallpaper Free -- flock behavior (sometimes called swarm logic) simulation with some triangles flying around your screen and other triangles trying to keep formation. It's interesting... for a little while. Not that interesting visually. Rating 6.5 out of 10 Download

Blinking :Love -- neon-like hearts in various colors blink randomly with cupid, android, or others floating in background in patterns you choose. Pretty simple, and smooth. 7 out of 10 Download

Blocks Live Wallpaper -- see Tetris Live Wallpaper

Blue Range --isometric 8-bit look that's a whimsical combo of both 2D and 3D and flying creatures and land creatures and so on, even reacts to time of day. Some of the landscape and creatures are interactive. You need a hefty phone. The preview works but the actual livewall itself only for a short time then somehow ran out of memory and killed itself. 7.5 out of 10 (if you got the phone for it) Download

Blue Romance Live Wallpaper -- more related to the Windows "Mystify" screensaver than any sort of romance, it basically is a blue triangle making very smooth random movements and distortions. -- 5.5 out of 10 Download

Blue Skies Live Wallpaper -- large footprint (2MB) and intensive CPU usage, but it generates a very good looking "flying above the clouds" look without using fixed video footage. 8 out of 10 Download

Bobs - Live Wallpaper -- some balls dance on screen to different patterns, a bit like a snake, but not quite. Not too bad. 6.5 out of 10. Download

Boids Live Wallpaper -- just a bunch of spheres randomly appearing on screen... boring. Download

Brainy Pano Live Wallpaper (F) -- a panoramic (360 surround) picture that pans and moves by itself. The paid version has more to choose from... Don't see anything really special about this one. 6.5 out of 10 (Paid version available) Download

Bridge At Night Live Wallpaper -- AIRPUSH!!!! Brooklyn Bridge at night... look okay, but extremely repetitive. Download

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Bubbleator -- a live wallpaper that scrolls "bubbles" across top half of your background with various info sources, such as Twitter, Facebook, SMS, email, and so on. Also supports plug-ins that adds stocks, RSS feeds, sports scores, and so on. 8 out of 10! Download

Bubble Live Wallpaper -- bubbles rises up from below watery surface... boring. (5 out of 10) Download

Bubbles, i.e. Pop Them Bubbles Demo -- cloudy background, some bubbles flying around that can be popped. Nothing special. 6 out of 10. Download

Butterflies Live Wallpaper -- AIRPUSH!!!!!! just some butterflies flying around the green vines and green background. Boring. Download

Butterflies and Cupcakes LWP -- some pink cupcakes floating up the screen, and some random pink butterflies may come by and carry one away. Sort of cute, but not enough. 6 out of 10 (PAID version available) Download

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Live Wallpaper Starting with C (23)

Cafewall Live Wallpaper -- ever seen the illusion where the lines are parallel, though your mind seem to think they are not? This is that... but ANIMATED, and it will drive you nuts. 6 out of 10 Download

CameraPaper-- takes photos? Never did see how it was supposed to work on my Moto Droid. I can hear the camera going off nonstop, but never actually SAW anything, just flat black background. Huh? NO RATING Download

Cartoon Aquarium (no longer available)

Celestial Lite Live Wallpaper -- enjoy a trip around the solar system, as you look at the various planets. You can adjust the frame rates, model details, background, and so on. Rotating wasn't quite smooth as the lighting interferes with that. High CPU load unless you play with the config a bit. 8 out of 10. (Paid version available) REVIEWER'S CHOICE Download

ChaosNebula -- [no longer available, replaced with Chaos Nebula GL] basically a kaleidoscope with a fancy name... each layer has fractal generators. Looks okay, but not really a nebula at all. 6 out of 1o

Chaos Nebula GL -- rewritten version of Chaos Nebula, basically a fancy looking kaleidoscope. Each layer is powered by a fractal generator, looks pretty good. Download

Chicks Live Wallpaper -- A bunch of drawn chicks (that's baby chickens) sprites bouncing around the screen. Boring! When installed it's actually called Prom #02. Weird. 4 out of 10 Download

Chinese New Year Prosperity God / Prosperity God Live Wallpaper
Chinese New Year Lion Dance / CNY Lion Dance LiveWallpaper -- [no longer available] made with OwnSkin, the animations tend to be a bit jerky and repetitive, but it fit the occasion. 6 out of 10

Chinese Painting Free / Chinese Ink Art -- [no longer available] Slightly animated Chinese ink painting style in either Black & White or Color modes. looks good, though the animation is a little silly. 7 out of 10 (Paid version available)

Chinese Zodiac / Zodiac Live Wallpaper -- the 12 different animals of Chinese Zodiac on a rotating "wheel", somewhat interesting. Paid version have more customization options. Free version is somewhat boring. 6 out of 10 Download

Christmas Tree Live Wallpaper -- Just a Christmas Tree with some flashing lights, nothing much to it. -- 6 out of 10. Download

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Chubby Dog (Live Wallpaper) -- similar to Nekko the Cat (see below), a dog runs around your screen and, well, dig up some things. Cute, but otherwise not that interesting. 6.5 out of 10 (Deluxe version available) Download

City Street Live Wall -- drawn skewed perspective of city street, looking up toward the lights. There's some light bugs flying about, and the lights blink or flicker, but that's about it. (6.5 out of 10) Download

Cloudy Sky Live Wallpaper -- clouds float across the sky passing the sun or moon depending on your time and lattitude/longitude. A bit of fun and relaxing look, but not that special either. Call it... 7 out of 10 Download

Coder's Live Wallpaper -- have random bits of source code in multiple languages being typed in the background. (NOTE: Paid version allows you to use your own code!) 6.5 out of 10 Download

Coligma Live Wallpaper -- particles that reacts to touch, battery level, accelerometer, AND magnetometer, pretty cool looking. 8 out of 10 (Paid version available) REVIEWER'S CHOICE Download

Color Comets Live Demo -- colorful background with some random 'comets' flying around, not that impressive as the "live" part is not that many. (Full version available, Android 2.1 only?) 6 out of 10. Download

Color Dots -- waving dots sort of like a flag in the background, nice color transitions (7 out of 10) Download

Color My Clock: Frozen -- see "About Time"

ColorSeparate Live Wallpaper -- if you have multiple screens this allow you to assign different colored and moving borders to each screen, but that's about it. 5 out of 10 Download

Color Time Live Wallpaper -- hashes a color code out of the time, somewhat interesting. 5.5 out of 10 Download

Crazy Colors Live Wallpaper -- one of Maxelus's earlier creations, this one is not as pretty as his galaxy-series, but is it is more reactive to user touch, similar in in spirit to Coligma. 6.5 out of 10 Download

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Cube Clock -- 3D-ish clock where the numbers are made of these dark gray cubes. As you shift to different screens you get different perspective on the whole thing. (7 out of 10) Download

Cyclo Live Wallpaper -- similar to plasma (see below), but in a different pattern, looks pretty good if you like color cycling type wallpaper. 7 out of 10. (for Android 2.1?) Download

C-ThruFone Froyo -- passes through your camera view so you hopefully don't walk into anything while you tap away at your phone! Probably will drain battery. (7 out of 10) (Android 2.1 version available) Download

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Live Wallpaper Starting with D,E (23)

Daisy Live Wallpaper Lite-- some daisies that move a bit as your background and pop open... Nice and calm. (Paid version available) 6.5 out of 10 Download

Dancer Live Wallpaper -- silhouette of dancers in the moonlight... somewhat romantic, but not that interesting. 6 out of 10 Download

Day of Ubuntu -- the "Day of Ubuntu" GNOME for Linux screensaver ported to Android, sort of interesting in an abstract way, but I think I prefer Giraffe or Silhoutte 6.5 out of 10 Download

Daylight Zone -- shows the day and night zones of the earth based on the clock. Hmmm... a bit buggy. 6.5 out of 10 Download

DeKonstr Clock Live Wallpaper -- part of ARTware series of clocks, this one uses moving lines to denote the sweeping "hands" of a clock. Very simple, yet very elegant. 7 out of 10 Download

Digital Wall Free Wallpaper -- yet another version of "The Matrix" wallpaper, this one features a bit more, movement, and more 3D feel, but it uses the built-in fonts instead of Matrix-y fonts, so the look suffered as a result. 6.5 out of 10. Download

Disease Propagation Demo -- imagine each community is a net, and a disease spreads, this would be an interesting simulation of such spread... green is normal, red is infected, and blue is recovered/immune. Interesting, if a bit morbid. Visual is interesting. 6.5 out of 10 Download

DOLO Water Live Wallpaper -- just force closes on my phone, no rating. Download

Doom Live Wallpaper -- watch the marine from Doom battle various bad guys that spawn at random. You can help the guy by touching the screen which spawns better weapons. It's cute, and fun. -- 8 out of 10 Download

Dragon Live (Free) -- just a dragon head (nicely drawn) breathing fire occasionally and see some steam out of his nostrils. No other animation, boring. 5 out of 10. Download

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Dragon Live Wallpaper aka Blue Dragon -- boring video loop of a dragon emerging, AIRPUSH!!!!! Download

Droid Live Wallpaper -- watch Andy the Android do various sports, like skateboarding, hang-gliding, and so on. However, this are very simple sprites. 5 out of 10 Download

Droid Eye Live Wallpaper -- Droid X style "round eye" on a robot-y background. Click and 4 color lightning hits the spot. Not too bad. Call it 7 out of 10. Download

Drops of Energy (Demo) -- live wallpaper where some blocks "drip" down from top but in blocky format which ends up looking like "snake", albeit very boring looking. 4 out of 10 Download

Duck Paper ( Live Wallpaper) / Duck hunt -- interactive, touch the duck to "shoot" it like the old NES game. However, why don't the duck flap its wings? 5 out of 10. (WARNING: May not work on Froyo) Download

Dynamic Paint Free Wallpaper --combination random paint splotch with a bit of "drip" and transparency sim. Looks pretty cool. You can even adjust the thickness of the paint (the default seem a bit too transparent) 6.5 out of 10 Download

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Earth at Night 3D Live Wallpaper -- a 3D globe that rotates to show the Earth at night, with all the lights, in various colors as options, with different rotation rates, size, and other customizations. 7.5 out of 10 Download

Earth Live Wallpaper -- it offers an impressive rotation of Earth complete with clouds and the moon, and other planets can be chosen as well, if you download additional "map packs". They even have the Death Star (2 versions), as well as other planets, both real and fictional. 8.5 out of 10 REVIEWER'S CHOICE Download

Electric Plasma Live Wallpaper -- plasma-like animation. Looks pretty fluid, but not quite plasma-y, and it taps the CPU very hard. 6.5 out of 10. Download

EpicAndroid 52 Card / 3D Live Wallpaper 52 Card Free -- watch a bunch of playing cards being dealt. The problem is the transparency doesn't work on some phones, so it looks... bad on SOME phones. 7 out of 10 Download

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EpicAndroid Wall A / 3D Live Wallpaper Allurge Free
EpicAndroid Wall B / 3D Live Wallpaper B! Free -- same maker, slightly different wallpapers with a wall composed of tiles, and the individual tiles tilt, change colors, grows and shrinks, and so on. 7 out of 10 Download 1 Download 2

ExZentric Clock LWP -- another one of ARTware's clock, where the sweeping hands are linked one to the other, and they still sweep. Very elegant, odd and minimal. 7.5 out of 10 Download

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Live Wallpaper Starting with F, G (28)

Fairy LWP (Free) -- this one just crashes my phone... both my old phone AND my new phone. Download

Fantasia Nr. 7 Live Wallpaper -- multiple static but very colorful wallpaper overlaid with some random flock-type movements on top of it, pretty good looking but not that "live". Very chaotic looking. 7 out of 10 Download

FFVI Airship Wallpaper -- imagine Final Fantasy VI's airship flying over some 8-bit like landscape. Unfortunately, it moves a bit TOO FAST on my dual-core, but it's cute. You can even turn on the mini-map. 8 out of 10 Download

Firefly Wallpaper-- a live wallpaper with 2 anime-style kids sitting at night with some green fireflies hovering about them 5.5 out of 10 Download

(Live) Firefly Wallpaper-- different from the one above, this one just has the fireflies, and you can choose the color. It's cute. And there is a config screen about size, number, and speed. You can even pick a glow trail. 7 out of 10. Download

Firepaper -- a live wallpaper with some fire in the background that doesn't actually look like fire, but more like lava. You can turn on the interactive mode, but that makes it look even weirder. Even the description agrees that it doesn't look like fire. Still, somewhat interesting. 6 out of 10. Download

FireWall Demo Live Wallpaper -- displays a particle effects "falling particles" on ugly background with almost no contrast. You can hit settings but none of them work or takes you straight to the purchase page. Annoying, and quite bad looking. Paid version has a lot more options, but this demo is almost worthless. 5.5 out of 10 (Paid version available) Download

Fireworks -- particle based fireworks, multiple patterns, in 3D. Even has optional backgrounds. Though the fireworks don't look quite right, as they don't stay in the air long enough. 6.5 out of 10 Download

Fish School Live Demo -- There's nothing wrong with limiting the functionality of the free demo, but when you put the nag message right on the wallpaper (says "demo version" very few inches) when the wallpaper itself wasn't that interesting, it's extremely annoying. Basically you watch some fish "flock" (well, school) together and swim in random directions, which isn't that well animated to start wish... 4 out of 10. Download

Fishbowl Live Wallpaper -- a cartoonish fish gently cruises around the screen. Rather plain and boring. Animations are way to subtle (blinking? fish blinking?) Latest version has a few more options like 2 fish, baby fish, feeding fish, and so on. 6 out of 10 Download

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Flip Clock 3D - Live Wallpaper -- it's the "flip clock" but in the . Looks pretty good, but no date. The background looks a bit plain. Also, the three promised fonts don't work. Only the default seem to work. This may be device dependent though. I know it doesn't work on the Droid. 6.5 out of 10 Download

Flow -- a live wallpaper that lets you watch a mountain stream from overhead, see the fish swim among the rocks... Serene, but otherwise not that interesting. 6.5 out of 10 Download

Flower Parade Clock Wallpaper -- live wallpaper with animated analog clock with flowers. However, the only thing animated are the clock hands. Still, it is artsy. 6.5 out of 10 Download

Fluidsim Live Wallpaper free -- a bunch of pretend liquid particles in your screen that reacts to your phone tilting and such. Also reacts to touch. Set a background (water related) to further amusement. 7 out of 10 Download

Flux Live Wallpaper -- another port from "Really Slick Screensavers" for Windows, this one have you fly among the flux lines, albeit not solid lines like the Windows version, resulting in something similar to Solar Winds.. High CPU usage, but looks VERY good, and makes more sense than some random dots like Coligma. 8 out of 10 Download

Flying Toast Live Wallpaper -- a tribute of the old "After Dark" flying toasters screensaver for Windows and Mac PCs, including music, background, and toastiness selection. 7 out of 10 (if only for nostalgia) Download

Free Real 3D Photobox LiveWall -- a live wallpaper with a cube (picture on each of the six faces) bounces and rotates in 3D space... boring. 5 out of 10 Download

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Galactic Core Live Wallpaper -- much better than the built-in Galaxy, with closer-in and better graphics, but not that much configuration. 7 out of 10 Download

Galaxy Core 3D LiveWallpaper -- AOI Studio's updated version of their own Galactic Core... Better colors, more particles, more types of galaxies... It's beautiful. 8.5 out of 10. Download

Galaxy Particles LiveWallpaper -- the Big Bang explodes into bazillion particles... Looks a bit like Coligma in a way, albeit different palette, and none of the interactiveness. 6.5 out of 10 Download

Galactic Wormhole Live Wallpaper -- see "Wormhole Live Wallpaper"

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Game Boy Live Wallpaper -- got any Game Boy ROMs for Android? You can show off its "demo mode" as a live wallpaper and go really nostalgic. Useless without any ROMs though. No rating, but it sure is neat! Downlaod

GeoMetric Clock Live Wallpaper -- another LWP from ARTware in their series of time-based creations, this one is an analog clock that is very simple... Three lines for the three hands, and a circle, that's it. Very stylish, very simplistic. Support the creator by buying the whole collection for one low price, but try this first. 7 out of 10 Download

Ghost Live Wallpaper -- AIRPUSH!!!!! Just static background with flashing lightning and occasional "ghost" that fades in and out. BORING! Download

Giraffe Live Wallpaper Free -- silhouette of giraffe walking on the Serengeti plains at sunset past a tree similar to the logo on "Nature" the PBS show. Relaxing, but very simple. 6 out of 10. Download

Go Weather -- while Go Weather is technically an app, Go Weather has a live wallpaper that is very well animated and shows the current weather. You can download even more plug-ins to improve the live wallpapers. If you want weather shown on your Android device, you must checkout Go Weather. 8.5 out of 10 Download

Grassoid (Winter) LWP -- Grassoid is from ARTware that makes their LWPs clock-based, but are NOT clocks. This one makes simulated "grass" grow and move, cute, but a little mundane. Also see Treeoid. 7 out of 10. Download

Gravitron Lite -- Gravitron is a simple animated live wallpaper that use shapes and layers to give the impression of depth. Lite version is pretty good. 7 out of 10 Download (paid version available)

Growing Mosaic Lite -- watch a bunch of colored squares combine and overlap, mosaic-like, into a picture. Somehow, it looks really weird. 6 out of 10 Download

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Live Wallpaper Starting with H, I, J, K (18)

H2O Physics Toy Live Wallpaper -- remember those little enclosed water toys where a small motor pushes the items from the bottom and you want to land them in the baskets? Yep, this is the Android version. Yes, you can play by tilting and moving the phone around. May not work on Froyo or Gingerbread. 7 out of 10 Download

Hawaii Live Wallpaper -- AIRPUSH!!!! VIDEO LOOP!!!! BORING! Download

Hearts Live Wallpaper Free -- from Maxelus who brought you the various "Galaxy" LWPs, this is perfect for Valentine's Day... have hearts float across the background, and a little custom message in the lower left corner. 6 out of 10 Download

Hearts Live Wallpaper -- from Xllusion, great for Valentines, some artsy hearts floating around on red/purple background. Now with more heart shapes, color themes, and backgrounds. 7 out of 10 Download

Heatmap Live Wallpaper -- see how you actually use your touch screen... Where you touch gets "hotter". What will you find? Interesting, but not that "useful". 6.5 out of 10 Download

Hello Kitty Wonderland LWP -- free version no longer Available, paid version still there.

Honeycomb LiveWall -- live wallpaper with "honeycomb" hex grid and subtle background color animation. Too bad it takes up a LOT of memory. 6 out of 10 Download

Hyperspace 3D Live Wallpaper -- looks beautiful, but appears to be an unauthorized port of "Very Slick Screensavers" for window. Taps CPU VERY hard. 6.5 out of 10 Download

Hypnotic Mandala Free version -- live wallpaper with mandala pattern that slowly animates, and does look somewhat hypnotic. Looks kaleidoscopic. 5 out of 10 Download

Hypnotic Spiral -- those spirals that supposedly will hynotize you... watch them rotate in the background.... <Snore>. -- 5 out of 10 Download

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Hypnotwister Live Wallpaper -- another hypnotic spiral. It may help you not to use the smartphone so much. Lots of configuration options. 5.5 out of 10 Download

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IBMWatson Avatar LiveWallpaper -- Live wallpaper of IBM's Watson Avatar that appeared on Jeopardy! the game show. Not that animated though. 5.5 out of 10 Download

IFS Live Wallpaper -- Iterative Function System (IFS) generates patterns through iterative functions, essentially fractals. The result looks interesting, but somehow the patterns are too small and move way too fast. There are no config options. 6 out of 10 Download

I Love Flow! [Free] -- simple animations, but a TON of customization to create some VERY unique live wallpapers with multiple messages, multiple hearts, colors, clock, calendar, and other nifty tricks. Obviously the full version is needed to unlock all capabilities. 7.5 out of 10 Download

Inspiration Snowflakes -- live wallpaper with complex hexagonal pattern snowflakes with inspiration words flying about. 6 out of 10 (paid version available) Download

Into the Jungle Live Wallpaper -- a featuring parallax scrolling of a hot and steamy jungle, and some random creatures. 7 out of 10 Download

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JustPictures -- if you install the JustPictures viewer (replacement for Gallery) it also installs a live wallpaper that will slide-show all your photos. 7 out of 10 Download

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Kodama Live Wallpaper -- if you like Princess Mononoke (the Japanese anime) they have these Kodama spirits. Now for your Android . Pretty tame... and lame. (4 out of 10) Download

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Live Wallpaper Starting with L (19)

Ladybug - Live Wallpaper -- look at a pretty good render of some leaves, and some ladybugs (yellow and red) crawling on those leaves, occasionally shaking their wings and buzz each other. No config. If you like this, also check out his Scorpion and Spider LWP. 6.5 out of 10 Download

Launcher Box -- same idea as "launcher wall" below, but in a Windows Phone 7 "Metro UI" look. Again, tap the wallpaper to launch apps. You don't need shortcuts at all. The Gmail revision may have caused it to crash, beware. 7 out of 10 Download

Launcher Wall -- makes your live wallpaper into a launcher. Just leave the screen with NO shortcuts. Interesting concept, as you don't have to worry about non-matching icons. It's not that customizable, but that was the point. 7 out of 10. Download

Lightbeam Live Wallpaper FREE-- pastel power! pastel colored light beam sooths and relaxes your eyes. Does it make a good LWP? That's up to your personal tastes. 6 out of 10 Download

Lines - Live Wallpaper-- Just a bouncing line with trail on your screen, choose color, blue, and such. Very old school, or is that old skool? 6 out of 10 Download

Liquid Physics Live Wallpaper -- a bunch of "water particles" reacting to how you tilt and twist the phone. Also see "Fluidsim" LWP. (6 out of 10) Download

LITE Marble Live Wallpaper -- marbles, up to 150, start to bounce in your screen and react to gravity. Kinda interesting, but seem to have problem with orientation. 6.5 out of 10 (Paid version available) Download

Live Earth Wallpaper -- Displays storms, earthquakes, and other earth events on a global map, along with weather data. Looks impressive, but ads and nag screen ruined the effect. Download

Live Growing Flowers -- a live wallpaper with computer-y flower (vector shapes) that grows from flower to flower, random colors and animated, interesting procedural graphics, but there seem to be no settings (7 out of 10) Download

Live Wallpaper Fireworks Free -- fireworks display, too much gravity. Nice colors, but has AirPush spam notification. 3 out of 10 Download

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Live Waterpaper / Waterpaper Live Wallpaper -- slideshow of your pictures but also adds "water ripple effect" when you touch the screen. Kinda cute at first, but otherwise useless. 6 out of 10 Download

Living Forest -- fractally generated trees around an analog clock, very artsy yet artificial at the same time. 6.5 out of 10 Download

Living Neko w/ Live Wallpaper -- Neko the cat, and some of his friends (the dog and the rabbit, and now, the hamster!), inspired by an old school NEC game. Very old school graphics, and somewhat charming. 6.5 out of 10. Download

Living Wallpaper -- live wallpaper that has your phone doing "Conway's Game of Life" in the background... Remember though, nothing will happen until you "populate" the place with a couple touches. And the screen clears itself periodically... Even if you set the stuff to "infinite". Not quite working, IMHO. 5 out of 10 Download

Logcat Live Wallpaper (lite) -- logcat is like a peek into what your phone is really doing... but you need major geekitude to understand it. (paid version available) 6 out of 10 Download

Lonely Coyote Live Wallpaper -- some coyote tracks appear in the sand, and wander aimlessly... Whimsical concept, nicely executed, but just not much here. Not landscape mode either (Paid version available) 6.5 out of 10 Download

Lucky Star Live Wallpaper -- beautiful hand-drawn art of rabbit sitting on the moon in a starry sky, lightly animated, relaxing and child-like... 6.5 out of 10 Download

Lufaweiss Aquarium -- a very slow aquarium with fish that look like they came out of a Picasso painting. Your taste may vary. 5 out of 10 Download

Luna Stream Live Wallpaper -- similar to Flux and solar winds, but with strokes of thin colored lines, AOI studios seem to be reusing the code borrowed from "Really Slick Screensavers" to multiple projects that look a lot alike... 7 out of 10 Download

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Live Wallpapers Starting with M, N, O (16)

Mandala Dream Lite -- no longer available

Mantra Wheel Live Wallpaper - rotating mantra wheel (actually a prayer wheel) for the background. Looks not that bad, but not exactly a popular topic. 6 out of 10 Download

Mario Live Wallpaper -- Mario, the super plumber, navigates through randomly generated levels in the background. Nothing to configure, but fun to look at. 7 out of 10. Not available in Android Market due to claim by Nintendo (Link to XDA Developers)

Matrix Live Wallpaper /.Best Matrix Live Wallpaper -- claims to be the "best" Matrix-like live wallpaper available. While it doesn't look that bad, but it doesn't look that "good" either. While the characters are kana, they are not the ones used in the movie. (Also see "3D matrix" ) 7.5 out of 10 Download

Matrix Stream Live Wallpaper -- a bunch of numbers "falling" on screen in 3 streams, with Matrix-type highlights. The free version has NO settings whatsoever. Looks not that bad, but lack of Katakana and English characters makes it suboptimal. Latest version allows you to convert a picture to look Matrix-y. 6.5 out of 10 Paid version available Download

Metal Rain Lite LWP -- some metallic looking particles fall slowly (not as fast as real rain). Somewhat interesting looking, but falls short in interactivity. 6 out of 1o Paid version avaialble Download

Mirror Eye Live Wallpaper Free -- allows move2SD that only 12KB remains in app storage, nice! Whole LWP is 2.8 MB. it's basically a small video loop of this "rotating eye" over a background. Looks okay... but not that good. 7 out of 10 Download

MonDriaNoid / MonDroid by ARTware -- another clock-based live wallpaper, this one is based on sliding bars. Looks rather plain, may be better on a tablet. 6 out of 10 Download

Moon Live Wallpaper -- simple animation loop of a moon going through its phases... BORING AIRPUSH!!!!! Download

MS Zombie Live Wallpaper-- MS here means Metal Slug series, and you see its zombies shuffle across the landscape. You can command bombers to bomb them (click on the screen). 6 out of 10 Download

Multi-Picture Live Wallpaper -- allows you to set one picture PER desktop screen. There is even a plug-in that let you show your Picasa album. 7.5 out of 10 Paid version available. Download

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Music (LWP) -- just a boring randomly rotating "cube" with some bitmaps on it. AIRPUSH!!!!! Download

Music Live Wallpaper -- just some musical notes blasting from a corner, AIRPUSH!!!!! Download

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Nexus Revamped Live Wallpaper -- a highly customizable version of Nexus One live wallpaper. Droid has its own version called Neural Network built-in, but the Nexus version has more colors and are brighter, and this version has more config for you to play with. Call it 7 out of 10. Download

Nightfall Live Wallpaper Free -- ever seen those long-exposure night photos where the stars streak? This LWP gives you that effect, without spending the time. (7 out of 10) Paid version available Download

Notification Bubbles for Android -- a live wallpaper that has bubbles, but these bubbles are actually notifications from various sources, such as Facebook wall updates, Twitter feeds, SMS messages, e-mail messages, and so on. Fonts are a little small. 7 out of 10 Download

Null man -- a live wallpaper that indicates your power status... but it's in Japanese. Skip it. Download

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Live Wallpaper Starting with P (20)

Palace Lantern 3D Live Wallpaper -- semi-transparent Chinese palace-style lantern, rotating in 3D, several patterns available, however, this shows little imagination and frame rate is rather lousy. 5 out of 10 Download

Panorama Lite Live Wallpaper -- a rotatable 360 panorama, 3 pictures available in the free version. Interesting but not very much so. 6 out of 10 Paid Version Available Download

Particle Storm Live Wallpaper -- similar in execution to Coligma (see above) where sparkling particles fly around the screen, but this one use smaller particles and starts with fireworks-like burst. Try both and see which you prefer. 7 out of 10 Download

Particle Wind Live Wallpaper-- no longer available

Patterns Live Wallpaper -- no longer available

Peso Wallpaper Autumn Free
Peso Wallpaper Winter Free
Peso Wallpaper Sakura Free -- cute "penguin chick" called "pesoguin" in various Japanese settings. Again, very cute, all of them, but not that interactive. 6.5 out of 10. Download 01, Link 02, Link 03

Photile Live Wallpaper -- turns your static picture into a bunch of tiles that randomly flips over. Boring! 5.5 out of 10 Download

PhotoWall -- use pictures in your gallery or Picasa album to build a live wallpaper that randomly changes. 7.5 out of 10! Download

Pillows in the Aether -- live wallpaper with random colored pillow-shapes float down like snowflakes... boring. 5 out of 10 Download

Pixel Ants Live Wallpaper -- ant colony simulation... the ant colony has a lot of ants and will scatter to find food, and leave pheromone trails for others to follow. Configure the colors of the pixels. Press to leave even MORE food. Somewhat amusing but not visually exciting. 7 out of 10 Paid version available Download

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Pl3xWallpaper -- a derivative of Nexus / Neural Network live wallpaper that includes optional logo sprites on the traveling lines, different colors, and so on. 7 out of 10 Download

Plane Live Wallpaper -- a plane (2D) move around the screen leaving some contrails... boring. 5 out of 10 Download

Planet Dream Lite -- live wallpaper in 3D that has two planets, Mars and Jupiter. (Full versionhas more) Looks pretty good, very similar to Earth (i.e. Earthrot) Download

Plasma Live Wallpaper-- nice desaturated background for stuff, yet moves fast enough to have noticeable animation. Lots of color choices and tweak options. 7 out of 10 Download

Plasma Colour Live Wallpaper -- supposed to be "Colourful and interactive fluid simulation", but in practice the screen looks empty and black, and what was there is too diffuse (reacts to touch) to look pretty. 5 of 10 Download

Plasma Tree Live Wallpaper / Avatar Tree Live Wallpaper -- inspired by Plasma Trees in Avatar, so the author claimed. it actually looks pretty good, though a little slow to see some good results. 7 out of 10 Download

Pockets (tm) Live Wallpaper -- a raccoon reacts to you scrolling the wallpaper. The background changes depending on time of day. A bit of parallax scrolling. 7 out of 10.Download

Pop them Bubbles Live Wallpaper -- see "Bubbles Live Wallpaper"

POV Live Wallpaper Demo -- interesting concept... by using the accelerometer, the picture is allowed to "shift" slightly as you tilt the phone, giving the picture a 3D feel without a 3D screen or stereoscopic trickery. Lite (free) version has 5 pictures. 7.5 out of 10 Paid version available. Download

Psychedelic Live Wallpaper -- multi-colored circles expand randomly around the screen, touching the screen cause more of these circles to form. Meh. 6 out of 10 Download

Psychedelic Fractals -- Mandelbrot fractals in psychedelic color palette. Resets every few minutes. A little slot to see results. 5.5 out of 10 Download

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Live Wallpaper Starting with Q, R (9)

Quads Live Wallpaper -- a couple curved lines moving around the screen leaving colored trails behind... like PS3's screensaver. Multiple themes and settings available. (Android 2.1 only?) 7.5 out of 10. REVIEWER'S CHOICE Download

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Rain Live Wallpaper Demo-- just a picture with "rain" overlay. I can probably do that in 15 minutes. Lousy (4 out of 10) Download

Rain 2 Live Wallpaper Demo -- almost same idea as Rain Live Demo (4 out of 10) Download

Raining Hearts Live Wallpaper -- AIRPUSH!!!!! Video Loop! Boring! Download

Retro Contours Wallpaper Free -- fly over a randomly created contour landscape in semi-isometric see-thru viewpoint. Speed is configurable. Looks pretty good, vaguely Tron-ish. 7.5 out of 10 Download

RetroFX Fire Live WP Lite -- OpenGL animated flame... sort of. All you see are some random orange flame-like fog. You can choose other colors, but it still doesn't look right. 4 out of 10 Download

Retro Pixels LWP -- 8-bit look of a RPG-like world (think Zelda style) with some odd creatures ambling about. Some of the features are interactive. It's up to you to figure out which ones. You need a hefty phone. The preview works but the actual livewall itself only for a short time then somehow ran out of memory and killed itself. 8 out of 10? Download

Ringo Apples Live Wallpaper-- some apples rolling down some invisible stairs The physics don't look quite right, but is sufficient. But what's the point? 6 out of 10 Download

Romantic Wave Live Wallpaper -- see "Beautiful Wave Live Wallpaper"

RPG Live Wallpaper -- imagine your phone is playing a console-style RPG by itself, as your "hero" wanders the land fighting increasingly difficult monsters. Yep, that's it. Cute. 7.5 out of 10 Download

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Live Wallpaper Starting with S (37)

Sakura Falling Live Wallpaper-- pink background, cherry blossom tree (sakura), and some more petals flying about. A bit too bright IMHO, but doesn't look that bad. Nothing too special either (6 out of 10) Download

Sakura Live-- this one has a cherry blossom branch background, and the blossoms drop like rain. Unfortunately the animation is off. Petals drop too slowly, and always fall straight down, unlike real falling petals. 5.5 out of 10 (Pro version available) Download

Seabed Live Wallpaper -- just a regular "sea view" background with "wave" overlaid on it. Boring. 5 out of 10 Download

Season Clock: Spring -- pink and flower themed clock wallpaper (enough said) 5.5 out of 10. Download

Season Clock: Autumn -- more brown and orange themed clock wallpaper, cousin to Season Clock: Spring. 5.5 out of 10 Download

Shake Them All! Live Wallpaper -- a couple "Andy" the Android robot ragdolls roll around on the screen based on your phone's orientation and accelerometer values (i.e. tilt and shake). They are somewhat amusing for a short while. Rating -- 7 out of 10 Download

Shining Mosaic Live Wallpaper -- it's just like "Light Grid"... a bunch of pixels flash in different intensity to look sort of like a mosaic. As they don't really form any patterns, it's not interesting. You're better off checking Tenori-On (see later) 5.5 out of 10. Download

Silhouette Fairy Live Wallpaper -- AIRPUSH! VIDEO LOOP! BORING! Download

Silhouette Live Wallpaper-- a "dramatic" sunset treeline with moving clouds... can be somewhat relaxing, but that's it. 6 out of 10 Download

Skyrocket Live Wallpaper -- see "3D Skyrocket Live Wallpaper"

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Smart Cube Live Wallpaper -- A background, and 6 faces of a cube that randomly rotates. Each face can be set to a custom function or picture, or you can load one of 4 existing themes. Nothing really special, as the cube isn't really big enough to be really visible. (Pro Version Available) 6 out of 10 Download

Smelly Jack Live Wallpaper -- a rabbit (drawn) jumping around the screen, pass gas, and do relatively stupid things. May get a chuckle or two, but not that interesting. 5.5 out of 10 Download

Smokey Colors Live Wallpaper -- Video loop! Airpush!!!! Boring! Download

Snowflakes Live Wallpaper Free -- white/gray snowflakes randomly float down from the top of the screen on a black background. No flipping, just straight dropping. The full version has more color tuning and other options. 6 out of 10 (Pro version available) Download

Solar System 3D Lite -- just Saturn with 4 moons, but it is a VERY nice view (full version has all the planets plus Pluto, asteroid belt, and more) 6.5 out of 10 Download

Solar Wind Live Wallpaper-- Solar Wind of "really slick screensaver" for Windows ported to Android. Looks very nice. Multiple presets, 4 presets to get you started. 8 out of 10 Download

Space Junk Live Wallpaper -- cartoony space man shoots space junk in the sky... And you control the action! Not that interesting, but cute. 6.5 out of 10 (Paid version available) Download

Spirits LITE Live Wallpaper-- some metaphysical mumbo-jumbo about creation and fading away... just some blue-ish shapes morphing on screen. 6 out of 10 Download

Splatter -- one of few live wallpapers with no "live wallpaper" in its name, this one have every "click" or touch brings up a big of randomly splattered paint on the "desktop". It's like watching elephant or monkey paint, except you are doing it. Options include viscosity of the paint (i.e. how much does it drip) 6.5 out of 10 Download

Star Chase free Live Wallpaper -- you're right behind a famous Star Wars spaceship like an X-Wing or Millennium Falcon, which is dodging all over the place... Stars whizzing by... And you can shoot at the ship! Yes, laser blasts! (And yes, they blow up too!) Not bad! Not bad! -- 9 out of 10 (Pro version available) REVIEWER'S CHOICE Download

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Starfield 3D Live Wallpaper -- a typical "flying through space", with trails, and even the occasional 'warp speed' (double-tap the screen). Does not have different color trails though... (Also see 3D galaxy above) 6.5 out of 10 Download

Star Free Live Wallpaper -- a bunch of dots moving in concert like spirograph or kaleidoscope, but not that interesting overall. 6 out of 10 Download

Starlight Live Wallpaper Free -- cute and slightly animated picture out of a children's book, a figure under bright moon and stars... Relaxing and cute. 7 out of 10 Download

Star Trek Active Wallpaper (a.k.a. Enterprise Live Wallpaper Lite) -- some Star Trek sprites move randomly over a space background. Rather poorly done. 5.5 out of 10. Download

ST: Red Alert Wallpaper Free -- a Star Trek movie era "Red Alert" sign, though you can double-tap to toggle yellow and green alert as well. The full version has alarm, incoming call, incoming SMS notification (i.e. switch to Red Alert even if you're in green), so it's a bit more utilitarian than you think. The free version however, is a 6.5 out of 10 Download

SteamPunk Live Wallpaper-- a bunch of steam-punk-y gears moving in the background. Taps the CPU pretty hard, but looks pretty darn good. With SeePU the usage is in "yellow" (almost maxed) range at just 10 fps on my stock Moto Droid. Good for showing off, not for regular use. (5.5 out of 10) Download

Stickman Live Wallpaper -- a "stickman" move in the background, do certain activities, and react to your taps (is he sleeping? Tap him!) Cute, but not that interesting. 6.5 out of 10 Download (paid version available)

Sticky Notes Live Wallpaper -- put a sticky note on your live wallpaper, so it's behind EVERY home screen you got. Choose from multiple themes, even your custom wallpaper. 7 out of 10 Download

Stock Ticker Lite -- a stock ticker tape scrolling in the wallpaper. It works, but the lite version will only do DJIA, S&P500, and NASDAQ. You also cannot adjust the "vertical offset" to push the text so it's not obscured by icons. Last thing to adjust is the text size. 6 out of 10 Download

StonerView Live Wallpaper -- a bunch of shapes do some dance in 3D and form some nice patterns. The shape is 2D, but motion is... well, take a look. (7 out of 10) Download

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Striker Live Wallpaper -- LWP made for World Cup... some guys playing soccer. Figures are a bit too small, IMHO, but it's interesting. 6.5 out of 10 Download

Subatomic Particles -- a live wallpaper where some random "particles" fly and bounce around the screen and "grow" as they collide, then explode... Too small to see much. -- 5.5 out of 10. Download

Substrate Live Wallpapers -- use iterative graphics to produce interesting patterns. However, the colors don't quite work, esp. on dark background. Also, it takes a LONG time to you to actually see some results. 6 out of 10 Download

Super Stars Live Wallpaper -- another "flying through space" live wallpaper, Doesn't do hyperspace or any other tricks. Boring. 6 out of 10. Download

Sweet Heart Live Wallpaper -- from the folks who brought you Go Launcher Ex, this is best used with the Go Launcher Ex and the matching Valentine's Day theme. And it is quite good... 7 different backgrounds and floating hearts. 7.5 out of 10 Download

Symphony of Colors -- a live wallpaper where thick rows of colors form "curtains", looks good for something so simple. Another quality LWP from Maxelus. 7 out of 10? Download

System Stats Live Wallpaper -- see your phone's stats, like CPU usage, network usage, activity log (i.e. logcat) and more on your live wallpaper. May be of some use if you don't use NetStat or SeePU and such "meter" utilities. Visually not that exciting. 7 out of 10 Download

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Live Wallpaper Starting with T (15)

Teddy Bear Bounce -- very simple live wallpaper where a bunch of teddy bear sprites bounce around the screen. Boring! When you install it, it's actually called Prom Live Wallpaper. Weird. (4 out of 10) Download

Tenori-On Live Wallpaper -- Japanese variation of light grid / life with multiple colors and patterns, with some special effects, based on a real "instrument" from Yamaha. Dragging on the screen will affect the patterns. 6.5 out of 10 Download

Tesla Sparks Free LWP -- a live wallpaper where a Tesla coil shoots lightning down to whatever you are "touching" on screen. 5.5 out of 10 (Full version available) Download

Test Image Wallpaper Clock -- nostalgic fans only, this recreates the TV test image from analog TV days. Oh, and there's a clock, which is animated. Nothing else moves. 5 out of 10 Download

Tetris Live Wallpaper / Blocks Live Wallpaper -- A game of Tetris (tm) is played automatically. Somewhat amusing. Where's the score? -- 6.5 out of 10 Pro version available with more stuff. Download

Text Clock Lite -- a live wallpaper that displays a text-based clock, but in a "grid" of letters. 6.5 out of 10 Download.

Thunderstorm Live Wallpaper-- stormy clouds and lightning in the background... and rain. It's not video, but pieced together from multiple sprites. Looks pretty impressive. 7 out of 10 Download

Tilt Live Wallpaper Free -- many "balls" that reacts to your phone's orientation and "bounce around" inside. Boring... 5 out of 10 (Pro version available) Download

TDC Live Wallpaper / Time and Date Contrast -- TDC stands for "Time and Date Contrast". The time is black over white, and date is white over black. It's nice and clean. Switching to different screens tilts the words. Nice and clean. 7.5 out of 10 Download

TimeSlider Live Wallpaper -- the live wallpaper that is also a clock. The time just slides across the screen in the back. 7.5 out of 10 (Pro version available, has more fonts) Download

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Treeoid Live Wallpaper -- Treeoid is from ARTware that uses the clock to help animate. Cute, if a little boring! (Also see Grassoid) 7 out of 10 Download

Tron Wallpaper -- Two light cycles run on screen. Not that interesting as this is plain 2D, no "border" to look like a game, and no "score" either. It doesn't even look Tron-ish... More like 2 snakes. -- 3 out of 10 Download

Twitter Live Wallpaper / TwiLPaper -- displays Twitter feed as a live wallpaper! Read your feeds in the background! Download

Typography Live Wallpaper-- random characters of various colors or various sizes randomly placed on screen. It's kinda fun to look at, but a bit chaotic (7 out of 10) Download

Typography Wall -- a clock live wallpaper with some fancy fonts based on OwnSkin editor, so it can be customized. Configuring it however is a bit glitch-y, as with all other OwnSkin based LWPs. 6.5 out of 10 Download

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Live Wallpaper Starting with U,V,W (19)

Underwater Live Wallpaper Free -- Imagine you are just beneath the waves and looking up. The waves are traveling. Looks pretty impressive. Too bad the CPU is tapped very hard and I think it's really a video loop..7 out of 10 (Pro version available, "swim" and "splash" modes ) Download

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Valentine's Live Wallpaper -- optional animated "wings" around a central heart with optional rotating "rays of light", and hearts flying out, with choice of different frames. Nice! 7.5 out of 10. Download

Valentine's Day Live Wallpaper -- AIRPUSH! Video Loop! Download

VirtualWorld 2 Live Wallpaper-- watch a virtual 3D mountainscape, where clouds roll across the sky, as the camera pans slowly across this virtual world... There are some strange pixelization effect but otherwise the landscape is very impressive... but taps the CPU pretty hard. 8 out of 10 (Paid version available) FREE VERSION NO LONGER AVAILABLE

VR Tunnel Lite Live Wallpaper -- remember 3D Pong? That's the sort of tunnel you're looking at, with cubes coming at you randomly. The tunnel reacts somewhat to tilts, and really, that's it. Boring! (6 out of 10) Download

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Wallpaper Motion ClockMyClock -- Yes, that's really the name of the app. It used to be Color My Clock, but when you install it it is named Live Wallpaper Clock. Any way, it is supposed to have this color scheme and dots and such to tell time, but it comes out as if it's something used to teach kindergarteners to count, and even the art doesn't line up right. (3 out of 10) Download

Warp Drive Live Wallpaper -- just another "flying through space" live wall, nothing special here. 5 out of 10 (Download)

Waterfall Live Wallpaper-- see 8-bit waterfall live wallpaper

Waterpaper Live Wallpaper -- see "Live Waterpaper"

Waterize Lite Live Wallpaper-- a couple pretty cool static backgrounds, and when you touch the screen you see water ripples. The problem is the ripples don't look right. What should be a circle is an oval instead, and the ripples are damped too quickly. Looks as if you are dabbing in syrup, not water. 6 out of 10. (Paid version available) Download

Water Wave Live Wallpaper -- another one of those "pretend liquid behind your LCD" live wallpapers... this one just have water, not beer or cola. Not bad, but heavy CPU usage. 6 out of 10 Download

Wave Live Wallpaper Lite -- a "simulation" of the PS3 "wave" screensaver, not bad looking, but kinda boring. 6 out of 10 Download

--------10--------

WebLiveWallpaper BETA -- display ANY webpage as a live wallpaper, and it live updates almost ANY web source, from webcams to galleries, websites, news feeds, and more. Amazing, if a little bandwidth greedy. 8 out of 10! Download

Web Lite Live Wallpaper -- web lite LWP claims to be simulating spider web. In reality, it looks more like a bunch of cancer cells. 4 out of 10 Download

Web LiveWallpaper -- very similar to the other "WebLiveWallpaper BETA", this one also lets you set a website as a live wallpaper. Also 8 out of 10! Download

Wild Horse Live Wallpaper -- just a silhouette of a wild horse sprinting... boring and repetitive. AIRPUSH! (Video Loop!) Download

Wind Turbine Free -- a live wallpaper with silhouettes of wind turbines on the horizon... kinda boring. 6 out of 10 Download

Winter Live Wallpaper -- free version has no settings, but animations nice as you see a pastoral village in a forest covered by snow, with more falling snowflakes and the sky will brighten / darken based on time (pro version only). Nice, 7 out of 10 Download

Wormhole Live Wallpaper / Galactic Wormhole -- a wormhole in space and you're flying through it! Nice smooth animation, through takes up like 20 MB of memory. 8 out of 10 Download

wp clock light -- digital clock live wallpaper with a few options 6.5 out of 10 Download

WP+Fractal Clock LiveWallpaper -- another clock live wallpaper, very much like wp-clock, except there's a very simple line clock in the middle. Boring... 6.5 out of 10 Download

--------19--------

Live Wallpaper Starting with X, Y, Z ( )

None at this time

Recommendation and Conclusion

Reviewer's Choice goes to Celestial Bodies, Coligma, Earth (i.e. Earthrot), Quads, Star Chase, 3D Matrix, and SkyRocket.

Fireworks, Plasma, and Galactic Core 3D are honorable mentions, along with Aurora and Ocean Waves. .

NOTE: VirtualWorld was removed as the free version is no longer available. 

If you want something a bit more practical, try TimeSlider, or maybe LED Scroller.

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Comments

Sangan on February 28, 2012:

Here is a new good live wallpaper. PhotoFrame Me live wallpaper which puts frame to your image and set as wallpaper. :)

http://market.android.com/details?id=photoframe.li...

Tablette-Wallpaper on February 13, 2012:

Bonsoir,

Sympa les wallpapers, allez également faire un tour sur le tout nouveau site http://www.tablette-wallpaper.com qui à pour devise de privilégier la qualité à la quantité. Pour l'instant vous ne trouverez que 100 wallpapers mais ils sont tous de la balle!!

Good evening,

I present to you the brand new site Tablet Wallpaper in which currency priviligier quality over quantity. For now you will only find 100 wallpapers but they are all pretty! Sorry, for my bad english.

kschang (author) from San Francisco, CA, USA on January 09, 2012:

@ram -- try a different live wallpaper. Not all live wallpapers are compatible with all phones.

ram on January 08, 2012:

I installed the animated wallpaper. when i selected it and clicked apply the preview is on,,the wallpaper doesn't loaded. the configuration all matches. but the screen is still black

mfm,f,, on January 04, 2012:

thanks

kschang (author) from San Francisco, CA, USA on December 24, 2011:

Well, the idea is to give you a one sentence blurb to help you decide what's good or not. Thus, there's not enough space to put up a picture for each and every one of the 230 reviews. :) You can always click through to see what it looks like.

aleni on December 24, 2011:

Were are the pictures?this I a website about how to get the pictures not real pictures:-)

kschang (author) from San Francisco, CA, USA on December 23, 2011:

Strange, PC Magazine just rated the latest Galaxy Nexus as one of the worst. Barely surfed over 3 hours before giving up. What happened to a phone lasting 3 days without a charge, hmm?

Justin on December 23, 2011:

Android phones don't have good battery life??? go buy a good one you trogledite

zay yar myo min on December 20, 2011:

I like this site...........

Nic on December 18, 2011:

Reaally love this wallpaper, for it's feature to play gingle bells when a noise is detected :)

https://market.android.com/details?id=org.cubus.sa...

B.E.N. on December 09, 2011:

Is the well-known , and unbelievably fascinating , live wallpaper "Ocean Waves" one of those :

"Some live wallpapers that worked on Eclair (Android 2.1) may not run on Froyo (Android 2.2)" ?

Recently bought a SGS that alledgedly was "reset" to factory setting, i.e.: Android 2.1 (Eclair). It had the "Ocean Waves" on it - to my delight ! But that L.W. was mysteriously gone (??) after a two-step upgrade to first Froyo, and finally to Gingerbread (2.3.3).

A *LOT* of search on internet for a reinstall, ended up in a constant message

{my translation}:

"Sorry! The process com.tat.livewallaper.oceanwaves for the program Ocean waves (Kang-o-rama) was stopped unexpectedly. Try again."

- - - Only given option was "Force close"

Doesn't good ol' "Ocean waves" from Nexus One run on Gingerbread ?

Thanks in advance !

// B.E.N.

kschang (author) from San Francisco, CA, USA on October 24, 2011:

@Prince Shouhei - never saw one. There was a utility where it periodically pulls a webcam around the world, and use that as wallpaper, but that's not "live wallpaper". I think that's under my other hub: wallpaper utilities.

Prince Shouhei on October 23, 2011:

Got any live wallpaper of cities

kschang (author) from San Francisco, CA, USA on October 21, 2011:

Not all devices support live wallpapers, even with 2.1 update. Just download one, and see if you can pick it under wallpapers. If not, then no.

Zak on October 21, 2011:

There is no option for live wallpapers in wallpapers and I am running of 2.1

michel dorandas on August 15, 2011:

Cool

kschang (author) from San Francisco, CA, USA on July 14, 2011:

Updated to 210 different LWPs reviewed! More updates coming soon!

Frank on June 01, 2011:

Wallstagram ( https://market.android.com/details?id=ca.repl.wall... ) is pretty good. It uses Instagram ( http://instagr.am ) to fetch and display popular images, or images taken near you. It's free, too.

kschang (author) from San Francisco, CA, USA on May 08, 2011:

Don't know of switchers for LWPs. That'd would require a huge expenditure of memory and CPU power as you constantly load/unload apps (LWPs are apps).

Drew D. on May 07, 2011:

Can I set several live wallpapers and get them to change like every 20 seconds or so?

No Man on May 01, 2011:

Real time earth from satellite as live wallpaper: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.nomanpro...

kschang (author) from San Francisco, CA, USA on April 28, 2011:

I'll add it to my queue. :)

Pswirly on April 27, 2011:

Would you be interested in reviewing my new wallpaper, Pswirly? Any feedback is appreciated, I want to improve it in any way I can

Swirling live wallpaper, fully customizable to how you see fit.

Watch as glowing particles swirl and spiral around your screen and slowly fade away. Customize shapes, colors, and speeds to your liking. Be sure to get Pswirly Pro for more particle images and even more settings!

New images and features soon to be added. If you would like to request a particle image, specific feature, or report a problem, send me an email at pswirlyapp@gmail.com

Features:

- Uses OpenGL for maximum graphic performance

- Customize particle shape, color, and speed

- Shake to clear screen

- Touch screen with 3 fingers to open settings (can be disabled)

USAGE: Go to your Home-screen > Menu Button > Wallpapers > Live wallpapers > Pswirly > Customize and press "Set Wallpaper" button.

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.exofusio...

kschang (author) from San Francisco, CA, USA on April 19, 2011:

Confession: with the cleanup and deadlink removals the number of LWPs have actually FALLEN below 200. However, I'm busy trying to add them back in! I should be about 185-190 now. Stay tuned...

kschang (author) from San Francisco, CA, USA on April 14, 2011:

Fly Punch is no longer free? Sheesh.

splabs on April 05, 2011:

Try FishBowl Live Wallpaper: Turn your phone into a mini aquarium!

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.sp.fishb...

Version 2.0 released - with new backgrounds and better graphics!

Very low cpu usage means it wont drain your battery!

LIKE our facebook page and you could get FishBowl Premium LWP free!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/FishBowl-Live-Wallpa...

neith on March 14, 2011:

Try gravitron.

So beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zY55mkCTzY

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.iopixel....

Noam Sheffi on March 07, 2011:

Hi All

i would like to share with you new live wallpaper app by the name FLY PUNCH LIVE WALLPAPER

Fly Punch is a live 3D animated wall paper which is also a game. It is designed for Android platform v2.1 and above.

The Fly Punch game is fun and simple, you can have up to 5 flies flying on your screen and you need to try and catch them. you can even set their flying speed.

The game will count your score and remember your high score but you need to beware, if you don't kill a fly for 30 seconds, your score goes back to zero!!!

you must check it :)

Android Phone Tips on February 26, 2011:

very complete review, its very useful for me and give a lot experience for me.

RATM2991 on February 08, 2011:

This was actually pretty helpful for my Droid...I need a new one though, the original is getting too bulky.

DoomGuy on January 25, 2011:

Doom Live wallpaper is the best. It actually has a playable game inside.

Hector on January 23, 2011:

This is great

alex on December 27, 2010:

Wanted to mention Clock Live Wallpaper 3D, a nice looking one, completely 3D wallpaper.

kschang (author) from San Francisco, CA, USA on December 01, 2010:

It's ONE of my favorites, not the favorite. It is pretty good looking compared to the others, pretty smooth on a newer phone (or overclocked older one).

TonyStark on November 30, 2010:

I can't believe 3D Matrix is your favourite, it's really laggy and not very interesting.

kschang (author) from San Francisco, CA, USA on November 24, 2010:

Pixel Ants is in! Keep me posted if you spot any good ones!

Bob T on November 18, 2010:

I think Pixel Ants should be put in your list! its brilliant!

Dana Rock from Pacific Northwest on October 24, 2010:

Wow! What a list!

blah on October 12, 2010:

Check out the Rain Drops Live Wallpaper. It's simple but pretty nice looking.

Mark Passarelli from Lakewood Colorado on September 11, 2010:

I really want to get the matrix wallpaper. It looks really cool!

Khyati on September 06, 2010:

Thanks.. The article was really useful for my Moto Milestone XT 720

eaglemapping on August 17, 2010:

THanks! Love my Droid, and freebies for it rick :)

Nokia 5800 Blog on April 26, 2010:

Excellent review of Live wallpapers for Motorola Droid. I have installed the recommended wallpaper and that are really amazing ones.

Thanks a lot for lovely suggestion and review.

I very much liked this hub :-)

Cheers!