Google Play is filled with apps hawking wallpapers, some great and some terrible. In the endless quest to create the ultimate home screen (for myself, anyway), I went through a boatload of them, and found a bunch of apps that help you create and apply backgrounds you’d be hard-pressed to spot on others’ devices. Here are nine of my favorites.
1. FreshCoat Wallpaper Creator
FreshCoat lets you quickly generate simple backgrounds for custom home screen setups
If you’re interested in creating a home screen setup from scratch,
FreshCoat is a handy tool to customize and generate simple wallpaper. Begin with a flat color, then add a texture or even a Material
Design-inspired pattern. You can adjust the opacity and color of your
chosen effect.
If you already have a collection of wallpapers, you can tweak it by
adding a blur effect or pixelating it for a retro 8-bit look. There’s
also the option to add text, but it’s so basic that you’re probably
better off avoiding it.
Download FreshCoat Wallpaper Creator [Free – $1]
2. KLWP Live Wallpaper Maker
Kustom is endlessly customizable and supports themes that you can download. Click for pictured theme
This isn’t so much a wallpaper as it is an extensible customization
system for your home screen. Kustom allow you add widgets, information
and more to change the way you interact with your home screen.
For example, you could have a three-panel main screen that lets you
view news, commonly used apps and a music player. Or you could just turn
the whole display into a large clock.
The possibilities with Kustom are truly endless — but there’s a
rather steep learning curve if you want to create your own
configurations. Of course, you don’t have to start from scratch all by
yourself; there are several themes you can download from Google Play,
and find more in the app’s Google+ and Reddit communities.
There are lots of resources and tutorials available to help you build your own themes. Kustom has also released a widget engine that’s worth a look if you care to tinker with it.
To get started quickly, I’d recommend downloading the app, then looking for themes in Google Play with the search term ‘for Kustom‘. Here are a few free themes
to try out. Kustom’s free version works well enough, but purchasing the
Pro key removes ads and lets you import skins from your SD card — a
bargain at the price of just over a dollar.
Download KLWP Live Wallpaper Maker [Free – $1.20]
3. Tapet – Infinite Wallpapers
Tapet lets you generate fresh backgrounds with just a swipe; you can also choose patterns and colors
Tapet lets you generate one-of-a-kind wallpapers with loads of
options for tweaking your creations. It’s dead-simple to use too: simply
swipe up to throw together a fresh background, and tap the checkmark to
set it. If you want to get your hands dirty, you can dig into the settings to
choose which patterns you’d like to include, and there’s a wide variety
to choose from, including grids, city skylines geometric patterns,
waves and abstract polygonal designs as well.
Tapet is intuitive enough that you’ll actually enjoy creating new
wallpapers. You can ‘like’ them to bookmark them for later, swipe down
to retrieve the previous one, and also change only the pattern while
retaining the color palette and vice versa.
The app offers most of its features for free, but if you opt for the
paid version, you’ll be able to incorporate even more patterns and even
randomize wallpapers without launching the app, thanks to handy little
widgets.
Download Tapet [Free ($3 in-app purchase)]
4. Material Wallpapers: Infinite
Choose from the large collection of Material Design-inspired backgrounds or generate your own just by entering your name If you’re a fan of large geometric shapes, flat colors and drop shadows inspired by Google’s Material Design
language, this is definitely worth a look. Start by checking out the
large collection of pre-generated wallpapers and then generate your own.
To do so, all you need to do is enter your name and the app will do the rest. You can adjust other parameters if you like.
I’ll admit that it took several tries before I got a result I was
happy to add to my home screen, but it’s fun to play with nonetheless,
and the included collection is quite nice.
Download Material Wallpapers: Infinite [Free]
5. PolyGen – Create Polygon Art
Generate cool polygon-based backgrounds using colors or images
Love polygons? This app lets you create polygon art with numerous
settings and effects to play with. You can also plot and move individual
points to create unique patterns.
For those of us with less time on our hands, there are handy
randomizer buttons to quickly generate fresh backgrounds. You can choose
different polygon distribution modes, color palettes and more. It also
plugs into the Patternoid community to let you save and share your
creations as well as download wallpapers created by other users.
Oddly enough, this app also lets you create Facebook cover photos and
more. The free ad-supported version does a whole lot, but after playing
with it for a bit, you’ll probably want to unlock more features like a
color picker and layer styles with in-app purchases.
Download PolyGen – Create Polygon Art [Free (up to $5.50 in-app purchase]
6. Material Islands
Material Islands change according to the time of day
This unique collection of five beautiful Material Design-inspired
wallpapers depicting mini islands has a neat feature that you won’t
notice at first glance: each background changes according to the time of
day.
I enjoy this set because of the minimalist art style and the calming
color schemes. Seeing them change when I unlock my phone throughout the
day is a nice little surprise. It’s another great choice for those who
enjoy simple shapes and clean lines.
Download Material Islands [Free]
7. Chrooma Live Wallpaper
Chrooma’s gently undulating shapes are a delight to watch
Inspired by the mobile game of the same name,
Chrooma adorns your home screen with large shapes that gently undulate
and slide over each other and respond to the motion of your device.
The shapes and colors can be set to change every time you return to
your home screen or after a certain period of time. You can create
palettes or let the app use the ones in its library, and remove those
that you don’t like.
For a buck, this elegant live wallpaper is an absolute steal for
users who enjoy minimalist backgrounds but want that little extra
somethin’.
Download Chrooma Live Wallpaper [Free – $1]
8. Meter
Meter displays useful information unintrusively and responds to the motion of your phone
One of Google’s own Android experiments,
Meter displays your battery level, wireless signal and number of
notifications in simple visualization based on geometric shapes.
The wallpaper cycles through three visualizations with every unlock
and you’ll see them react as you tilt your phone. If you like keeping
your home screen tidy but still want to stay on top of your device’s
vital stats, this is a good way to go.
Download Meter [Free]
8. Facets
Enjoy a fresh piece of Justin Maller’s amazing art every day all year round
As part of a year-long image-a-day project, Australian artist Justin Maller created 365 gorgeous wallpapers that span a range of art styles and are perfect for adding a bold look to your home screen.
Facets includes beautiful fractal landscapes, low-poly animals and
intriguing abstract pieces that will have you glancing at your screen
more often than usual.
Browse through the entire collection and swipe up or double tap on
any image when viewing it in full screen mode to set it as your
wallpaper.
Download Facets [Free]
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I like number 1,2 nd 4... Thanks
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