Muzei Live Wallpaper Review: the Android wallpaper Lollapalooza

Developer: Roman Nurik | Download: Android |
Category: Live Wallpaper | Price: Free |
Yet still, the live wallpaper Android situation has been a bit of a mess. Some live wallpapers are good, but others proved to be performance and battery hogs (especially on lower power devices), so downloading a new live wallpaper app always comes with a slight sense of risk. Up until now, there was practically no single source for wallpapers that would be simple, ad-free and reliable. Times are changing, though, and we think that such an app has finally arrived.
We’re speaking about the just launched Muzei Live Wallpaper (Muzei, for short), the second app from Google engineer Roman Nurik, best known for his extremely popular DashClock widget. DashClock was different from other widgets in that it came with an open public API so devs could extend the widget functionality. They could, for instance, tap into popular apps like Twitter (we should really think of these as services rather than apps, though).

Muzei
To start off, you first have to grab Muzei on the Google Play Store where it’s available for free. The app features signature, round yet flat, simple icons, and wallpapers that are blurred by default. These two elements, and the full-screen experience (using KitKat's ‘Immersive Mode’), define its unique design language.

You can select the blur and dim levels
The app comes with a slight disclaimer, though. One thing that you might be used to seeing in live wallpaper apps is animations, and we have to make it clear that Muzei won’t bring animated or moving images to your device. Instead, it only shows static images that rotate over time.
All in all, Muzei Live Wallpaper is a refreshing new take on the Android wallpaper. It’s reliable, fast, and modern-looking, but most importantly it’s open and it already has extensions for the world’s most popular image sharing services - Instagram, Flickr, 500px, and many more. Being able to experience the amazing images from these websites as a live wallpaper that is also not too intrusive, is something we’ve been looking for in a while. Now, we’ve found that something.
Pros
- Open and extendable via a public API
- Modern styled dimmed visuals for the wallpapers
- A ton of add-ons and extensions are already available for most popular services
- Muzei is a light app, doesn’t slow down devices
- Free
Cons
Developer: Roman Nurik | Download: Android |
Category: Live Wallpaper | Price: Free |
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