And then there’s Google Pixel. Whether you’ve got an older model like the powerful Pixel 8 Pro, or the sleek, new Pixel 9 Pro Fold, these phones stand out. 

You can make your Pixel stand out even more by customizing your wallpaper. Tired of seeing the same photo of your dog or your honeymoon in Paris? You can customize it with exciting motion graphics and sizzling 3D effects, add a fun emoji, or use Google’s powerful new AI tools to create a dazzling work of art. 

Because who wants to blend in? With Pixel, you don’t have to. 

For the past seven years, Joe Diekemper has had the same photo set as the wallpaper on his Pixel 7a. It’s a group selfie from a hazy night, taken by a friend who was driving him and his wife home after a dance party. The happy couple are kissing in the back seat. Diekemper, 49, a nurse in St. Louis, Missouri, has always figured that picture might be on his phone forever. And it very well may be. 

But now, thanks to new Google Pixel wallpaper tools, he can play with the look and feel of the photo. To make it stand out more, he can customize it with exciting motion or 3D graphics. “It’s super fun,” Diekemper says. “I could spend hours doing it.”

If you have a Pixel 6 or later model, you can add 3D effects to your wallpaper by following these simple steps:

1. Touch and hold an open spot on the home screen and then open Wallpaper & style. (If you have a Pixel Fold, your phone needs to be closed.)

2. Tap More wallpapers and then My photos.

3. Select the photo you want as your Pixel wallpaper.

4. Tap the Gemini logo.

5. Turn on Cinematic wallpaper.

6. Tap Home screen and Lock screen to preview how it looks. Once you’re happy with it, tap Set wallpaper.

7. Choose if you want to place your image on the home screen or lock screen (or both home and lock screens for Pixel Fold). Then tap Set wallpaper.
   

Being creative is fun, but can also be intimidating – especially if you’re not sure where to begin. That’s where Google’s new AI phone wallpaper tool comes in if you have a Pixel 8 or Pixel 9 phone.¹ 

Kyle Graeser, who works in IT in Colorado Springs, Colorado, was struggling to come up with a phone background he liked. So he turned to the wallpaper tool for help. “I told it to generate a dark green forest with a path down the middle with some light in the back,” he says. “It did a great job.”

Here’s how to use the tool on Pixel 8 and Pixel 9 phones:

1. Touch and hold an open spot on the home screen.

2. Open Wallpaper & style.

3. Tap More wallpapers, then tap AI wallpaper.

4. Pick a theme to create your AI-generated wallpaper.

5. Tap Inspire me to get a random prompt for a Pixel wallpaper.

6. Tap any underlined word in the prompt to explore specific options.

7. Tap Create wallpaper to generate the wallpaper.

8. Swipe left or right to swap through several AI-generated wallpaper options.

9. To set the wallpaper, tap Done.

10. Select if you want the wallpaper on the home screen or lock screen and tap Set wallpaper.

Mike Baker, age 75, a barber in Eugene, Oregon, has been playing around with the wallpaper tool and likes that his phone saves all the options he creates with the help of AI. “It’s a fun exercise,” he says. 

After experimenting with a few ideas, he wound up with a wallpaper he loves: a tractor on the beach, rendered in a 19th-century realist style. “It looks like an old-time painting,” he says. “It’s been really enlightening, seeing the power of AI and exploring its artful side.”

Steven Hurst, a production scheduler in Indianapolis, Indiana, has been customizing his Google Pixel wallpaper as well. He likes playing around with emoji on his Pixel 6, creating versions based on Batman villains and characters from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The emoji, he says, “are awesome and make for great conversations.”

They’re easy to create, too. If you have a Pixel 4 or later model, you can customize your wallpaper using your favorite emoji by following these steps:

1. Touch and hold an open spot on the home screen and then open Wallpaper & style. (If you have a Pixel Fold, your phone needs to be closed.)

2. Tap More wallpapers.

3. Tap Emoji Workshop.

4. Tap Edit emoji.

5. Choose whatever emoji you like. When you’re finished, tap Done.

6. To edit the arrangement of your emoji, tap Patterns, and use the slider at the bottom of the menu to make the emoji larger or smaller. You can also tap Inspire me to get a random assortment of emoji.

7. To change the background color, tap Colors and choose the color you want.

8. To preview how it will look, tap Lock screen and Home screen.

9. When you’re satisfied, tap Set wallpaper.

10. Choose whether you want the custom screen on the home screen or lock screen (or both the home and lock screens for Fold.) Then tap Set wallpaper.

To learn more about how to customize your Pixel, check out the wallpaper simulator.