What To Do To Add New Lock Screen Wallpaper on Android
Your lock screen and even your home screen let anyone looking at your phone or tablet know a few things about you. These two screens give clues away about your personality, style. You’ll quickly see that I really like Crypt of the Necrodancer. I haven’t changed my wallpaper in months, but if you want, there are more than enough out there to suit anyone’s tastes.
Changing your wallpaper is easy on any Android device, but if you’re running Touchwiz, like on pretty much every Samsung device, it’s even easier. I’ll show you how to change both your wallpaper and lock screen on Touchwiz, and then other Android devices without a single download needed.
If you aren’t running Touchwiz, feel free to skip the first method, since it won’t apply to your device.
Method 1: Use Your Settings (Touchwiz)
Since I’m true to my word, let’s start with Touchwiz first. This is the stock interface you’ll have on most Samsung devices, so if you’re running a recent Samsung phone without any changes; this is what you’re running.
If you’re not sure you’re running Touchwiz, or know you aren’t running it; skip to Method 2 to learn how to change your wallpaper.
1.
Once your device is up and running, unlock it and go straight for the app drawer so you can get to your Settings. If you have a different, or faster way to get to your Settings, that will work the same way.
2.
Since you’re on Touchwiz (and if you aren’t Touchwiz, why are you reading this?), go to the Device section of your Settings, and then scroll all the way down to Personalization. Once you’re there, tap the Wallpaper option.
3.
From here, you can select a wallpaper for both your home screen and lock screen at the same time, or individually.
After you’ve picked the appropriate wallpaper down below, you can hit the button to set it, and then you’re done. Enjoy your new wallpaper!
Method 2: Using Your Settings (Stock Android)
Unlike with Touchwiz, in stock Android you can only set the wallpaper for your home screen. In turn, this also makes your lock screen the same picture if your lock screen doesn’t already have a set one.
You can change your lock screen wallpaper individually with other means, but we’ll get to that later.
1.
This part is the same no matter what Android phone or tablet you’re using. First things first, you need to dive into your Settings. You can get there any way you want, since any changes in the journey don’t affect your destination.
2.
On Lollipop, your Display options aren’t very far away from your starting point. Under Device, tap your Display options to open up a few different settings, and one that we’ll use.
3.
It might catch your attention right away, but in case it doesn’t, take a look for Wallpaper on this menu and select it.
4.
Here you have a chance to choose the image you want to set as your wallpaper. You can pick from your Gallery, Photos, already installed Wallpapers, downloaded Live Wallpapers, and you can see down below that I can even pick one from my launcher.
For this example, let’s choose Gallery.
5.
I have more than a few different choices here, but because I’m boring, I’m going to pick the same wallpaper I’ve always been using.
Once you find the picture you want to use, just select it, and then tap SET WALLPAPER above it to confirm your choice. You can’t set the wallpaper for your home screen and lock screen individually this way; this will overwrite both.
Method 3: Using Google Photos / Photo Gallery
This next method is much like the second one. You can do this from any Android phone or tablet, but it does require you to have the picture you want to use on your device. The way this works with Google Photos, and your stock Gallery is the same.
For this example, I’m using Google Photos because Method 2 already mentions the Gallery. Rest assured, this will still work with your Gallery if you aren’t using Google Photos.
1.
Open Google Photos, or update the app if you haven’t used it in a while like I have. If you’re opening Google Photos for the first time, you can skip through all of the syncing options and just get to your photos.
2.
If the picture you want to use is one you’ve taken with your camera, you’re already in the right place. However, if you want to use a saved picture instead; switch to your Albums to find the rest of your saved pictures.
The picture I want to use is tucked away in my Albums, but if you want to use a picture from your Photos, select it and then follow Step 4.
3.
Tap the Albums button on the bottom of the screen to switch menus. Now tap the photo above the words Screenshots, Pictures.
Here you can select any picture saved on your phone, including photos. Find the picture you want to use, and then select it. If you can’t see all of the pictures you want to use, tap the category to expand it and view the rest of your pictures.
4.
Now that you have the picture you want, tap the three vertical dots in the top right hand corner.
Now select Use As, which will give you a few options. Select Wallpaper with the corresponding icon for either your Gallery or Google Photos. Once you do that, your picture is set.
Method 4: Setting an Image Straight from Your Browser (Firefox)
This next method works in almost exactly the same way as Method 3. The only difference, is that you’re selecting an image straight from your browser instead of from your phone. The browser I’m using here is Firefox, but this should also work in Chrome.
1.
The first step here is to open up your browser. I’m using Firefox, but you can use any browser you feel comfortable with.
2.
Next you need to find an image. My favorite image search engine right now is Dogpile, but that’s just me. You can still use Google, Yahoo, or even Bing if you feel like it.
3.
After a quick search, I’ve already found the image I want, and surprise surprise, look what it is.
Once you’re sure this is the image you want (like I’m sure this is the one that I want), longpress it to make a new menu show up.
4.
Select Set Image As, and then Wallpaper with whatever icon next to it that you prefer. I also recommend saving the image if you plan on using this wallpaper again after you’ve changed it.
Now just tap SET WALLPAPER to confirm your choice, and enjoy your new wallpaper.
Method 5: Picturesque Lockscreen
Picturesque Lockscreen is a Microsoft app that brings you a new lock screen wallpaper every day, and gives you Bing functionality without needing to unlock your phone. As far as I can tell, the wallpapers chosen are random, and while you can cycle through the random ones; you cannot select your own.
If you want a fresh lock screen every day, a Bing search bar at the top of it, and news just a swipe away; this might just be the app for you.
This only changes the wallpaper for your lock screen, and not the wallpaper for your homescreen.
1.
You can download Picturesque Lockscreen down below by clicking the image provided. The installation won’t take more than a minute of your time.
Picturesque Lockscreen
2.
When you open the app for the first time, you’ll be taken through some settings you can choose to enable, or leave disabled.
If you want to keep this app as your lock screen, I recommend you enable notifications before continuing.
3.
Once you’re through with the introduction slides, you can see your new lock screen in all of its glory. The image you see right now will change every day, but if you tap the “i” in the lower right hand corner, you can choose between even more random wallpapers.
Use the arrows to switch between wallpapers until you find the one you want. You can use the pause button to pin this image as your wallpaper for the whole day, the trash bin icon to stop this image from appear, and the download button to save the image for later use.
Tapping the search icon can tell you more about the picture you currently have selected. Once you’re done, just tap in the center of the screen to go back to your lock screen.
4.
If you swipe once to the right, you’ll see a Bing powered news feed. You don’t have to use this, but if you want to have news overlayed on your new lock screen, this is the way to do it.
Conclusion
Changing your wallpaper is quick, painless, and a fun way to show off your personality on your Android device. There’s no need to stick with the same wallpaper day in and day out like I do, you can even change your wallpaper every few minutes if you want.
The choice is left up to you, much like how Android lets you do everything you want. You can let your wallpaper reflect who you really are, or even who you want to be.
Now that you know how to change your wallpaper, what should you change it to? We’ve rounded up plenty of cool live wallpapers, and wallpaper apps to keep you happy for a long time to come.
Not for Nexus devices. No such setting.
This does not work. As soon as I play media the lock screen image gets overwritten with the media cover-art.
Hi Max,
Sorry to hear about that, but I think once you stop the media the image should revert back to the one you set.
There’s no option for Lock Screen on my device. I have Android 4.0.4 on a Samsung Centura (?) SCH-S738C
Am I doing something wrong, or is this feature locked out by my vendor?
Hey Cash, I have not seen this particular smartphone model myself but here is the short version for Samsung in general:
From the Home screen, touch Applications > Settings > Display settings > Screen display.
Under Lock screen, touch Wallpaper.
Touch one of the following options:
Gallery: select a wallpaper from photographs you have taken with your camera.
Wallpaper gallery: select from many still-life wallpapers
Select a wallpaper and touch Save or the Set wallpaper icon.
Bro..it doesnt work both ways..idk is it bcoz of my phone or wat..but my setting interface is notin like ur sc
Hi Naqib,
What phone do you have? =-)
I have a spice stellar 516, its an android and it doesn’t have a lockscreen option
doesn’t work on Android 5.1 lollipop
Android 5.0, and there’s no possibility to change lock screen f ex to a picture from gallery 🙁
Hi Mari,
What kind of device do you have?
This setting is not part of stock Lollipop. It must be a Samsung TouchWiz add-on.
Hi Gib,
Changing lock screen wallpaper is also the same on stock lollipop. Go to the gallery, open up the image, long press on it or press the menu button to gain access to a pop up screen. Select set as lock screen wallpaper and you are done!
am using Itel it1503 how do I get to such setting cause I dnt see any
Hi Towiae,
Please try going to settings>My Device>Display>Wallpaper>Lock Screen. I am not too familiar with that phone, but that is how I change the lock screen image on my Samsung Galaxy phone. Please let me know if this helps. Thanks for commenting.
thanks for the help but there is no screenlock setting …..
Hi Towiae,
What kind of phone do you have? I have a Samsung Galaxy and in order to change the lock screen wallpaper I did the following Settings>My Device>Display>Wallpaper
and you should be able to see the options of Home screen, Lock screen and Home and lock screen. Hope this helps and please let me know what happens. Thanks for commenting!
This doesn’t for lollipop k3 note as when magic mention pops up there is no lock screen option any other suggestions
Menu*
How do you copy lock screen image on note 3?
Hi Micheal,
If what you mean is how to take a screenshot of your lock screen on your Note 3, the link below will give you 6 methods you can try. I hope this helps. =-)
https://joyofandroid.com/screenshot-on-samsung-galaxy-note-3/
I have a zmax phone that won’t give me option of lockscreen or display.
Hi Bob,
Other Zmax Phone users have the same issue and some of them have tried taking a picture of the image they want the wallpaper to be. When you look up the image in the camera review, at the bottom you will see an icon called “Set As”
Use this option to “Set As” LockScreen Wallpaper. Hope this helps. =-) Thanks for reading.
Thanks! That’s what worked for me. I think you might want to update the original post.
Hi There,
I am glad I was able to help and thanks for commenting. =-)
That finally worked for me 2. Thank you. The very first time I changed the lock screen wallpaper there was a choice of “lock screen” or Display screen. But I had to edit (and darken) the wallpaper so I could see the white time numbers. When I went to change it the second time the Lock Screen choice was removed. Luckily the Camera Display Pics offered the Set As option that worked. Thanks again.
Hi Leif,
That is so good to know that you were able to change the lock screen wallpaper, Did you change it to an image of a funny Android image? You are most welcome for the information and thanks for commenting. =-)
Does not work on my wiko smartphone with android 5.1.
Hi Erik,
Have you tried changing your lock screen by going to the image you want to use in the gallery, then tapping the menu button and then selecting Set As? Hope this works for you. =-) Thanks for reading.
Can’t find the setting. I got an Elephone P8000.
Hi Vladik,
Is your device rooted? =-)
Uhm. Being a stock android user since the Nexus S (gingerbread 2.3.6 in my case): stock android does not have a separate setting for lockscreen art. Never has. This guide may work on touchwiz devices (samsung) but Nexus phones and tablets not so much (at all) 😉
Hi Roderick,
Thanks for your feedback. There are always methods that will work on some phones while it won´t for others. Hopefully, this method will help as many users as possible. Thanks for commenting. =-)
Probably worth adding to the article that these methods will not work on standard Android. You have to be using a tweaked version like Samsung supply for the ‘lock screen’ wallpaper options. I have a Motorola Moto G with a pretty much vanilla Android 5 (factory installed) on it and the options are not there.
Hi Frankz,
I have a normal unrooted Android and I can change the wallpaper at any time. Every device is different and for some reason, some by not have that option and then an app might be necessary. Have you tried using an app for that? =-)
I use a nexus 6P and the option to set wallpaper from photos app doesn’t work for lock screen. It does set wallpaper on launcher ( after i unlock ). However, i found an app which does let me set wallpaper on lock screen. Lock screen wallpaer (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thambu.lockscreenwallpaper.free)
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for sharing your preferred app. An app I recommend is Zedge, it has a lot of options not just for your lock screen, but ringtones as well. It´s free. Thanks for commenting. =-)
Does Zedge set wallpaper just for lock screen? I tried using it but couldn’t find an option.
Hi Andrew,
The app doesn´t have an option directly on it for you to put the wallpaper on your lock screen only as the main wallpaper. You can set the main wallpaper after you download it, all you have to do is tap on set. I always use the photo gallery method to change the lock screen wallpaper. Thanks for commenting. =-)
Ah. I was hoping to set just the lock screen’s wallpaper. I will just use the other app then.
Hi Andrew,
OK, let me know which app you decide to go with.=-)
The default Android one does allow changing both lock and home pages separately. You just have to click as follows: display-> wallpaper-> wallpapers. Here you can swipe between home and lock screens! You can’t adjust the picture like you can in Google photos though.
Hi Michael,
Thanks for sharing your tip with us. =-)
I have a android phone. (Not sure what version it is though.) EDIT: I checked and I am using android version 5.1.1
I want to change my lockscreen wallpaper without changing my main wallpaper. I want two, invidivual wallpapers. Two different wallpapers. (I’m not looking for multiple wallpapers and what not,, cuz when I looked that up I was directed to this ‘MultiPicture Live Wallpaper’ app, which is not what I am looking for.)
When I go to settings > display > wallpaper …
it shows me a list of what photo I wanna use for my wallpaper.
EX:
Gallery
Live Wallpaper
Mobile ID
Photos
Wallpapers
However when I do set a wallpaper through that method, it changes my main wallpaper along with the lockscreen. (Rather, the lockscreen is more of just black with opacity lowered.)
I have tried a lot of these methods stated here, and I have looked up a few things. And I have found nothing that could help me so far. I’m not even sure if this is possible with the type of phone I have. (I have not found anything saying ‘lockscreen’ so far. In the methods I mean. I have not found any option named ‘lockscreen’ as I was trying these and several other methods.)
As stated before, what i’m trying to do is have the main wallpaper, and the lockscreen wallpaper (if it even can have one) be different.
I’d really appreciate if I could have a in depth tutorial/explanation of this, because I really am just confused as heck.
Hi There,
What phone do you have? =-)
I’ve got a Wiko Plup 4g android 5.1.1 and when i change the wallpaper the lock screen stays with the default. i still can’t find ways to change that to my liking!
Hi Riri,
Another way to do it is to pick any screen that has an open space on it. Press that open space until a menu pops up that says:
Home screen
Add to Home screen
Set wallpaper for
Home screen
Lock screen
Home and lock screens
Select Lock screen and then select from Gallery or Wallpapers and then go from there. Hope this helps. =-)