Lock screen vs home screen wallpaper

Your phone has two screens that look different at different times: the lock screen you see when you wake the phone, and the home screen behind your apps. Most people use the same picture on both, but you can give each its own, and there are good reasons to. This guide explains the differences and how to choose.

What is different about the two screens

The lock screen is the first thing you see, many times a day, and it has a large clock, widgets and notifications on top of it. The picture needs calm areas where those overlays sit, usually the top third. The home screen has rows of app icons, so a very detailed picture competes with the icons and makes them harder to read. A softer, darker or simpler picture works better there.

Put simply, the lock screen is for the picture you want to look at, and the home screen is for the picture you want to look past.

Choosing pictures for each

Lock screen: a tall picture with a clear subject and space for the clock. Dramatic skies, a single flower, a planet or a close-up work well.
Home screen: an even, darker or blurred version of the same picture, a gradient, or a texture. Many people use a darker crop from the same theme.
A matched pair: pick two pictures from the same theme. The theme pages on WallpaperDuck group pictures that were made as a series, so they share colours and mood.

iPhone

Open Settings, Wallpaper, and tap Add New Wallpaper.
Choose a picture, tap Add, then pick Customize Home Screen to set a different home picture or a blur.
Swipe sideways on the lock screen to switch between saved looks, and link a look to a Focus if you want it to change automatically.

Android

On a Pixel, open Settings or touch and hold the home screen, choose Wallpaper and style, then Change wallpaper. Choose the Lock screen or Home screen tab at the top before you pick the picture, then repeat for the other tab.
On a Samsung Galaxy, open the wallpaper settings by touching and holding the home screen. After choosing a picture from Gallery, the final step lets you set it on the home screen, the lock screen or both.

Some Android phones keep both screens the same unless you choose only one, so check the preview before confirming.

How the picture is cropped

Lock screens and home screens crop the same file differently. The lock screen shows the entire height. The home screen on many Android launchers scrolls, which means the picture is wider than the screen, and part of it is shown at a time. On the iPhone both use the full height. Pick a portrait picture with the subject in the middle and you avoid most surprises.

Battery and readability

On an OLED screen, dark pictures use less power. A bright lock screen can make notifications hard to read and a dark one makes them stand out. The dark topic page at /wallpapers/dark and the minimalist topic page at /wallpapers/minimalist are useful starting points for the home screen.

A simple rule of thumb

Use your favourite picture on the lock screen and a calmer relative of it on the home screen. Change them separately, whenever you like, and you never have to settle for one picture doing two jobs.

For the full step-by-step instructions, see the guides for iPhone and Android on this site.