Spicing up an Android lock screen and/or Home screen background by changing a stagnant wallpaper to a GIF is very easy. The newer versions of Android are highly customizable and feature-rich.
With GIF Live Wallpaper, it is really easy to set a GIF as your wallpaper or lock screen. The app’s multitude of options can make a user feel overwhelmed at times.
How to Set a GIF as Your Home Screen and/or Lock Screen
Download a GIF
You have mostly seen a lot of GIFs but have not downloaded a single one. It is simple enough to do, visit a website that has the GIF of your choice like GIPHY.
Long tap on the GIF you wish to download, then tap on “download image”.
Install GIF Live Wallpaper
After downloading the GIF you will need to install GIF Live Wallpaper. To download the app, search for “GIF Live Wallpaper” on the Google Play store or use the link to get to it immediately. Tap on “Install” to download the app and install it, then run the application.
When you first run the application it asks you to read the privacy policy. You can either tap on the link to read it or just skip it and tap on “Yes”. GIF Live Wallpaper will also need to have access to your media. Tap “Allow” on the pop-up permission request that comes up after you tap on “Yes”.
Choose Your GIF
You need to select the GIF you wish to use as your home and/or lock screen. In the top-left part of the screen, tap on the picture icon that is located there, it will take you to the gallery. A recently downloaded image will appear on the top of the list of pictures or you might need to tap on the three dashes located in the top-left corner and sort by “Downloads”.
If it’s not recently downloaded, you will have to search for the GIF.
Resize the GIF
Before the GIF is set as either your home screen or lock screen, some settings need to be customized first. The GIF will more likely appear really small originally and surrounded by a black background. Most GIFs will not mimic your phone’s aspect ratio.
GIF Live Wallpaper gives you the ability to resize your GIF. The way the screen looks after editing with GIF Live Wallpaper is exactly how it will look on your home and/or lock screen.
Move the GIF around by manually tapping and dragging it. It can be resized by using the pinch-to-zoom gesture. The four arrows located at the top-left corner can also be used to immediately move the GIF.
Tapping on the arrow facing upwards will immediately move the GIF to the top of the screen. This goes the same for the right, left, and downward-facing arrows. The plus sign in the middle will center the GIF.
Change the Background Color of the GIF
If the GIF does not fill out the entire frame of the screen, or if you do not want to resize it, there will be borders around the GIF when you set it as the background of your home and/or lock screen. GIF Live Wallpaper allows you to change the color that borders the GIF.
Tap on the dropper icon that is in the center of the top part of the screen. You will then be asked to pick a color. Tap on any spot in the GIF and the background will match that color.
The color can also be manually changed. To do this, first, go to the three dashes icon in the top-right corner of the screen. It takes you to another page, where you will see three slider options (for red, green, and blue respectively). Adjusting these sliders will change the color to match the background color set.
To confirm the color selected, tap on the dropper icon in the top-right hand corner of the screen. Then go back to the edit screen by tapping on the three dashes icon in the top-right hand corner of the screen.
Preview the Landscape Mode
To preview how the GIF will look in landscape mode, tap on the three dash icon in the top-right hand corner of the screen. Some launchers and lock screens do not allow for rotation, so you might not need to worry about the step.
If your home and/or lock screen rotates when your phone is turned, tap on the “Landscape Preview”. The GIF will then appear in a landscape view at the edit screen in the preview window which is at the bottom of the screen. Make some adjustments here which will ensure that the GIF will look good in landscape view.
Then return to the edit mode by tapping on the three dash icon in the top-right hand corner of the screen.
Change the Speed of the GIF
If the speed at which the GIF plays, you can speed it up or slow it down using the GIF Live Wallpaper app. To do this, use the tool in the right-hand corner of the screen. It has a running person icon on it.
Tap on the plus icon to speed up the GIF and the minus icon to slow it down.
Rotate the GIF
In order to rotate your GIF, tap on the rotate icon. It is a 90° in a circle on the left-hand portion of the screen. As the 90° implies, the GIF will be rotated clockwise by 90° each time you tap on it.
As you proceed, there might be some modifications you do not like, you can easily undo these by tapping on the clock icon in the bottom-left corner of the screen. This removes all changes made other than selecting the GIF and background color.
When you’re satisfied with the changes made, tap on the checkmark icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen. A pop-up message will appear depending on your phone.
Most phones will present you with three options; “Set as Home screen”, “Set as Lock screen”, or “Both”. Others might give you the option to set the GIF as the Home screen by default and also provide an option for you to set it as your Lock screen.
All you have to do is choose the screen (or screens) where you want the GIF to be set and tap on “Set” to post the GIF.
The GIF will loop endlessly as either your home screen and/or lock screen
