Can I set a different wallpaper on the lock screen and the home screen?

Yes. Every phone in this guide asks where the picture should go. Set your first picture on the lock screen only, then repeat the steps with a second picture for the home screen.

Why does my lock screen wallpaper keep changing by itself?

A lock screen service is rotating pictures, such as Samsung’s Dynamic Lock screen or a feed like Glance on some phones. Turn it off in your wallpaper or lock screen settings and your own picture stays put.

Do Athiwalls wallpapers work on Android tablets?

They do, but a tall phone wallpaper is cropped heavily on a wide tablet screen. A desktop wallpaper usually fits a tablet much better, especially in landscape.

How to set a wallpaper on Android

Android lets each phone maker design its own settings, so the menus on a Samsung look different from those on a Pixel or a OnePlus. The idea is the same everywhere: get the picture onto the phone, then choose it from the wallpaper settings or from your gallery. Menu names change a little between versions, so if a label here doesn’t match yours exactly, look for the nearest one.

Download the wallpaper first

Tap Download on the wallpaper’s page. Chrome saves the file to your phone’s Download folder, and it appears in your gallery app, usually in an album called Download. If Chrome asks whether to keep the file, tap Download again.

Use the button rather than saving the preview image. Previews are smaller than the real file so pages load quickly, and a small picture stretched over a large screen looks soft. Athiwalls phone wallpapers download at 1440 × 3120, which covers the sharpest Android screens.

Samsung Galaxy

On One UI, Samsung’s version of Android:

Touch and hold an empty part of the home screen.
Tap Wallpaper and style.
Tap Change wallpapers, then Gallery.
Pick the wallpaper, then choose Lock screen, Home screen or Lock and home screens.
Adjust the crop if you need to, then tap Done.

You can also start from the Gallery app: open the picture, tap the More options button, the three dots, and choose Set as wallpaper. On recent One UI versions you can edit the lock screen directly too: wake the phone, touch and hold the lock screen, and tap the wallpaper.

Google Pixel

Touch and hold an empty part of the home screen.
Tap Wallpaper & style.
Tap More wallpapers, then My photos.
Pick the wallpaper and pinch or drag to position it.
Tap Set wallpaper and choose Home screen, Lock screen or Home and lock screens.

Pixels also take colours from your wallpaper for the whole system, including the quick settings, buttons and, if you turn on Themed icons, your app icons. In Wallpaper & style, the Wallpaper colors options show what your new picture produces. A wallpaper with one clear colour, rather than many, gives the most even result.

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OnePlus

On OxygenOS:

Touch and hold an empty part of the home screen.
Tap Wallpapers, or Wallpapers & style on newer versions.
Choose your photos or gallery as the source, then pick the wallpaper.
Position it, apply it, and choose the home screen, the lock screen or both.

From the Photos or Gallery app, opening the picture and looking in its menu for Set as works too.

Any other Android phone

Phones from Xiaomi, Motorola, Nothing and others follow the same pattern. Touch and hold the home screen and look for Wallpaper, or open the picture in your gallery app and look for Set as or Use as in its menu. If nothing appears, open Settings and search for “wallpaper”.

Fix the most common problems

It’s cropped too tightly. Android crops a picture to your screen’s shape when you set it. Athiwalls phone wallpapers are drawn at 9:19.5, close to most phones made in the last five years, so pinch out as far as the preview allows and you’ll lose only a sliver at the edges. The guide to fitting a wallpaper without cropping covers pictures in other shapes.

It moves when you swipe between home screens. Some launchers scroll the wallpaper sideways as you change pages. That needs a wider picture, so the launcher enlarges yours to make one. Look for wallpaper scrolling in your launcher’s home screen settings and turn it off.

It looks blurry. Make sure you used the Download button, not a screenshot. If the picture reached you through WhatsApp or another chat app, it was almost certainly compressed on the way; ask for it to be sent as a document instead. The guide to why wallpapers look blurry has the full list of causes.

The lock screen shows something else. Services like Samsung’s Dynamic Lock screen, and lock screen feeds like Glance that some phones ship with, replace your picture with a rotating set of their own. On a Samsung, open Wallpaper and style and set Wallpaper services to None. On other phones, look for the feed in your lock screen settings.

The colours look duller in dark mode. Some phones dim the wallpaper when dark mode is on. On a Samsung, this is the Apply Dark mode to Wallpaper switch in Wallpaper and style; turn it off if you prefer the original colours.