The main options for setting a wallpaper are using images from your phone, choosing from the pre-installed wallpapers, or installing a wallpaper app. The last two options are easier to use because the images have already been modified and resized to fit your phone’s screen. However, if you want to use a downloaded or snapped the image as your wallpaper, most images won’t fit and may need to be resized. Also, the size of the images compared to the phone’s resolution is primarily responsible for this.

set a picture as wallpaper on android
Image: Daniel Romero / Unsplash

However, the urge to set some of the images in our gallery as wallpaper never goes away. So if there’s a particular image you’d like to use as wallpaper for your Android phone or tablet, this article will explain proven techniques to make them look great and fit on your screen. We will also go into everything else about how to turn an image into a wallpaper on Android.

How to Set a Photo as Wallpaper on Android

There are different methods you can use to set a picture as a wallpaper on Android, but here are the easiest and most common ones:

  • Set Picture as Wallpaper via Gallery
  • Set Picture as Wallpaper via Settings

Let us now check each of these in detail.

Method 1: Turn a Picture into Wallpaper via Gallery App

The most straightforward method to use a picture as a wallpaper on Android is through the gallery. Here is how to do that:

  1. Open your Gallery App. This can be the Google Photos app as well since many smartphones don’t come with a separate Gallery app.
  2. Navigate to the picture you wish to use as wallpaper and find the three-dot menu (either at the top-left or button-left corner of the page, depending on which Android device you use).
  3. Click on the three-dot menu and select Set Wallpaper.
  4. Reposition the image, click Apply and choose to use it for the home screen, lock screen, or both.

    set photo as wallpaper

Method 2: Set a Picture as Wallpaper via Settings

The settings can also be used on Android to set a picture as wallpaper. To use this approach:

  1. Open Settings on your phone
  2. Hit the Display & brightness option
  3. Click on Wallpaper and select your Gallery as where you’ll like to choose the wallpaper from.
  4. Navigate to the image you wish to use and tap it.
  5. On the preview page, reposition the image the way you want and click Apply.
  6. Then choose if you want to use the wallpaper on the home screen, lock screen, or both.

In most cases, the images in your gallery aren’t the right size for your phone’s resolution. Therefore, only part of the image will be displayed on your phone’s screen. The next section of this article describes various ways to overcome this problem.

How make a picture fit a wallpaper on Android

Making an image fit for wallpaper can often be a challenge, but it’s still possible with the help of some third-party programs like Image 2 Wallpaper, which is available in the Play Store. By overlaying the image on a background with a background resolution, the application can convert an image into one that is suitable as wallpaper. With the help of this application, you can also adjust the color of the background so that it blends with the image and gives a pleasant appearance on your screen.

turn a picture into wallpaper on android

When you use the application to turn a picture into a wallpaper on Android, you can discover a variety of different elements. Moreover, you can choose where to place the image whenever you want to reset an area. The modified image can also be set as wallpaper directly from the application, bypassing the steps described in the previous section.

If you like, you can use photo editing applications like Picsart and Polish to make minor adjustments to your image before setting it as your wallpaper.

Also on TechPP

Turn a Picture into Wallpaper on Android

Images can be in either portrait or landscape format. Portrait photos, however, are easy to use as wallpaper because they only need to be cropped and adjusted to make them suitable for the screen. However, to make a landscape image fit your screen, you need to move it to another background. So, we’ve discussed some information that can help you when you want to turn a picture into a wallpaper for Android.

FAQs on Setting a Photo as Android Wallpaper

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You can use several applications to create the wallpaper on Android by yourself. Yet, the most recommended ones include:
1. Canva
2. FreshCoat
3. WallMate
4. Blur Wallpaper

There's no standard size that an image should have for phone wallpaper, as the phone's resolution may vary. However, it's recommended to use a photo with a width of a minimum of 640 pixels and a height of 960 pixels so that the image looks sharp on your phone.

Yes, you can set a GIF as your wallpaper on Android using a third-party app as there are no built-in options available. We recommend you install the Giphy app to set GIF Live Wallpaper on your Android phone.

You can either uninstall a wallpaper or change the wallpaper option directly from settings. Here is how:

  1. Open Settings and click on Display & brightness.
  2. Select Wallpaper and choose when you want to pick a wallpaper image from.
  3. Then follow other on-screen prompts to set the new wallpaper.

If you use an LCD, you do not have to worry about whether you use light or dark wallpaper as they drain the battery in the same way. With an OLED display, the battery drains faster with a colorful screen because the display brightens the screen more.

You can set any picture as a wallpaper on Android. We recommend using the Image 2 wallpaper app, which lets you fit any photo you want as an Android wallpaper with ease.

Further Reading:

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