Live Wallpapers for iPhone

Save a Live Photo, then set it as your Lock Screen. In ScreenLux, open a live wallpaper and tap Save; it lands in Photos as a Live Photo. Open Settings → Wallpaper → Add New Wallpaper, choose Photos, pick it and tap Add. From then on it animates whenever you wake the phone. Any iPhone on iOS 17 or later can do this, and you can also start from the Photos app with Share → Use as Wallpaper.

Because iOS only animates wallpapers on the Lock Screen. The Home Screen always shows the still frame of a Live Photo, and no app can change that. If it is not moving on the Lock Screen either, check three things: the image was saved as a Live Photo rather than a still, the Live badge was on when you added it in Settings → Wallpaper, and Low Power Mode is off, since it can pause the effect. Then press the side button to wake the phone and watch.

A Live Photo is a still image paired with a short clip, and iOS can use one as a Lock Screen wallpaper that plays the clip when you wake the phone. ScreenLux builds each of its 89 iPhone live wallpapers in that format at 1080 × 2400, with the loop composed for the phone’s tall frame rather than cut from a landscape video. It is the only motion format iOS accepts for a photo wallpaper, which is why ScreenLux uses it instead of video files.