MELANCHOLY404 TECHNOLOGY

I still have vivid memories from when I saw the live wallpaper demo in Android 2.1. This was early 2010 and Nexus One had just come out. You can do that? The nerd in me screamed.

There were all kinds of live wallpapers, and still are, for that matter. Waterfalls, flowers growing, clouds moving, nature scenes changing depending on the time, and lots more. Some were amazing, but most of them sucked. And they really sucked the battery life out of my Gingerbread based phone.

By the time Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean showed up, I was glad we were done with live wallpapers. The time of bloated, trashy, and tacky was finally over.

But now, live wallpapers are kind of back. And they’re aligned with the time we live in. Lollipop is clean, colorful and pretty (but you don’t need to be on Lollipop to use these apps). So is Material Design. These new live wallpapers need to be just that.

 

Chrooma is a paid live wallpaper app. It costs $0.99 and boy, is it worth it. If one of your life goals is it be pleasantly surprised every time you go to the home screen, just download Chrooma.

 

This is how it works. The app follows Material Design guidelines for generating new patterns for wallpapers. You can go to the settings and customize which patterns you like and choose the colors the app should use. Then specify when the app should switch the wallpaper. The default is every time you come to the home screen and that’s my favorite. Time interval based switching is also available.

And because this is a live wallpaper, it’s not just switching between wallpapers, there’s movement going on (the wallpaper basically pans around). It’s very subtle, kind of like iOS’s parallax effect, except for it’s not based on gyroscopic movement of the phone.

 

Material Design Live Wallpaper is an extensive live wallpaper app based on Material Design layouts and colors. The reason I call it extensive is because of the options available.

 

You start out by choosing a theme. By default, the app uses your phone’s gyroscope to interact with the wallpaper. But you can change that as well. It can be based on your swipes or you can totally automate it so it moves around in a pattern without any external input.

The paid version of the app lets you select colors and switch wallpapers using a double-tap gesture.

 

Minima is similar to Material Design Live Wallpaper but its themes are bloody amazing. Some of the more awesome ones are only available in the Pro version ($1.99). But customization options for a theme are available in the free version as well.

 

You can specify the colors in the pattern, decide the movement and more. By default, Minima uses your phone’s gyroscope for interaction.

Have a go-to wallpaper app for Android? Share with us in the comments below.