Set An Image As Wallpaper In Android

In this tutorial, you will learn how to set an image as wallpaper using WallpaperManager in your Android application. WallpaperManager allows you get the current desired dimension wallpaper and set it as wallpaper on your Android device. We will create an actionbar menu and on menu item click will specify an image path to WallpaperManager and set the image as wallpaper. So lets begin..

Create a new project in Eclipse, select File > New > Android Application Project. Fill in the details and name your project WallpaperTutorial.

Application Name : WallpaperTutorial

Project Name : WallpaperTutorial

Package Name : com.androidbegin.wallpapertutorial

Open your MainActivity.java and paste the following code.

MainActivity.java

package com.androidbegin.wallpapertutorial;

import java.io.IOException;

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.app.ActionBar;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.app.WallpaperManager;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.view.MenuItem.OnMenuItemClickListener;
import android.widget.ImageView;
import android.widget.Toast;

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

	@Override
	public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
		super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
		// Get the view from activity_main.xml
		setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

		// Create an actionbar
		ActionBar actionBar = getActionBar();
		actionBar.show();

		// Locate ImageView in activity_main.xml
		ImageView mywallpaper = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.wallpaper);

		// Attach image into ImageView
		mywallpaper.setImageResource(R.drawable.wallpaper);

	}

	@Override
	public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {

		// Create an actionbar menu
		menu.add("Set as Wallpaper")
				// Add a new Menu Button
				.setOnMenuItemClickListener(this.SetWallpaperClickListener)
				.setShowAsAction(MenuItem.SHOW_AS_ACTION_IF_ROOM);

		return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
	}

	// Capture actionbar menu item click
	OnMenuItemClickListener SetWallpaperClickListener = new OnMenuItemClickListener() {

		public boolean onMenuItemClick(MenuItem item) {

			// Retrieve a WallpaperManager
			WallpaperManager myWallpaperManager = WallpaperManager
					.getInstance(MainActivity.this);

			try {
				// Change the current system wallpaper
				myWallpaperManager.setResource(R.drawable.wallpaper);

				// Show a toast message on successful change
				Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this,
						"Wallpaper successfully changed", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT)
						.show();

			} catch (IOException e) {
				// TODO Auto-generated catch block
			}

			return false;
		}
	};
}

We have created an ImageView to show the attached image on the graphical layout and an actionbar menu. On actionbar menu item click will use WallpaperManager to set the specified image as wallpaper.

We have prepared a sample wallpaper for this tutorial. Insert your downloaded sample wallpaper into your res > drawable-hdpi.

Sample Wallpaper

[wpfilebase tag=file id=78 tpl=download-button /]

Next, create an XML file for your MainActivity Graphical Layout. Go to res > layout > Right Click on layout > New >Android XML File

Name your new XML file activity_main.xml and paste the following code.

activity_main.xml

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical" >

    <ImageView
        android:id="@+id/wallpaper"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" />

</RelativeLayout>

Next, change the application name. Open your strings.xml in your res > values folder and paste the following code.
strings.xml

<resources>

    <string name="app_name">Wallpaper Tutorial</string>
    <string name="menu_settings">Settings</string>

</resources>

In your AndroidManifest.xml, we need to declare a permission to allow the application to set an image as wallpaper. Open your AndroidManifest.xml and paste the following code.

AndroidManifest.xml

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.androidbegin.wallpapertutorial"
    android:versionCode="1"
    android:versionName="1.0" >

    <uses-sdk
        android:minSdkVersion="11"
        android:targetSdkVersion="15" />

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.SET_WALLPAPER" >
    </uses-permission>

    <application
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >
        <activity
            android:name=".MainActivity"
            android:uiOptions="splitActionBarWhenNarrow" >
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>

</manifest>

Output:

Source Code 

[purchase_link id=”7825″ text=”Purchase to Download Source Code” style=”button” color=”green”]