A feature that lets you set a unique lock screen wallpaper that’s different from the home screen isn’t always an option on an Android smartphone. More and more companies these days are adding in this feature but if you don’t have the option then the GravityBox Xposed Module will do that for us.
Some people like to be greeted with a particular image when they press the power button of their phone to begin the unlock process. This can be a photo of that vacation you took last year, a loved one, or just a design that catches your eye. Most Android smartphones these days will let you pick a single image and set it for both the Home Screen wallpaper and the Lock Screen wallpaper. Sometimes we don’t want the same image on both pages though.
OEMs are beginning to see the demand for this feature but that doesn’t mean it makes it into all of their smartphones. This is also a popular request within the custom ROM community and it wasn’t that long ago when even this wasn’t a native feature included in CyanogenMod.
Thankfully though, no matter when device you use if you can install Xposed Framework on it and the GravityBox Module then you will gain complete control of the wallpaper displayed on the Lock Screen.
So as I just said, this requires you to have Xposed Framework installed along with the GravityBox module. I have written and recorded tutorials showing how to install Xposed Framework on a number of devices with the Pixel 2 being the latest version. If I haven’t done one for your smartphone (it’s likely because I don’t own it so please remember to donate), then you can follow the tutorial I did for the Pixel 2 as most of the process is automated now.
Lock Screen Wallpaper with Xposed
- Put the image you want for the Lock Screen in the storage of your device
- Launch the GravityBox Xposed Module application
- Tap on the Lockscreen Tweaks option
- Tap the Background Style option
- Tap the Custom Image option
- Then choose the Set Custom Image option
- Browse to and select the image you want
- Edit or modify the position and/or location
- Tap the Done button at the bottom right
- Customize the Blur Effect and/or Background Opacity (optional)
Explanation
This unique Lock Screen wallpaper feature was pretty rare to see a couple of years ago but I’m glad that seems to be changing. Almost all of the major OEMs are implementing at least one way of setting a different image on your Lock Screen than what is displayed on the Home Screen. However, sometimes these features don’t make it to the low-end and mid-range devices. Even if you pick out a popular custom ROM there isn’t a guarantee that this feature will be included.
This is where GravityBox and its assortment of features comes into play. Again, this does require that you have Xposed Framework installed followed by the Xposed Module. The installation of Xposed Framework is very smooth now but some may continue to be confused about how to install an Xposed Module. I have previously done a guide about how to install an xposed module on the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T and the process remains the same as it did back then.
So once you have all of that done, we just need to launch the GravityBox application and then tap on the Lockscreen Tweaks option at the very top. there are a lot of things to choose from here but want to ignore them all and just tap on the Background Style option at the top. This will make a popup box appear with a number of options to choose from. Unlike the guide I did yesterday about how to blur the Lock Screen wallpaper, this time want to tap on the Custom Image option.
Now you’ll see an additional option appear below this labeled Set Custom Image and tapping this will bring up a file browser. Now we can browse to and tap on any image we have saved on our device that we want displayed on the Lock Screen Wallpaper. You’ll be able to adjust and edit the image from here if you’d like, but when you’re ready you should tap on the Done button at the bottom right. You’ll be taken back to the GravityBox menu page but when you check the Lock Screen you will see your image as been set as the unique wallpaper.
