Windows Phone Lockscreen apps seem to be appearing out of nowhere these days. You have Befriend, Paper Shuffle, Lock Themes and now you can add Flickr to the growing number of wallpaper sources. Flickr Live Wallpaper is a lockscreen wallpaper app that pulls images from the popular online photography source.
The nice thing about Flickr Live Wallpaper is that you can name your photo source, use multiple sources and if need be, crop the photos so they fit a little better on the screen.
When you first launch Flickr Live Wallpaper you have to set up a source for your photos. There are four sources to choose from:
- Interesting Photos: The simple and straight forward choice. This source pulls from Flickr's Interesting Photos feature.
- Flickr Group: This source requires you to identify a specific group on Flickr to pull photos from. You can search by keyword or name a group directly.
- Flickr User: The user source will pull images from a specific Flickr user. You can search for Flickr users by username or email. You can use a Flickr user's full photostream or a specific photoset from that user.
- Keyword: Just type in the keyword describing the type of photos you are looking for and a collection of photos matching will be generated from Flickr's galleries.
Once you get your source in order, just tap save and you will be taken to the main pages of Flickr Live Wallpaper where the source will be displayed on your Sources Page.
From the main pages of Flickr Live Wallpaper you can view the current wallpaper, crop it to better fit the screen, view and select your sources (multiple sources are allowed), and view the app's settings. Settings cover the frequency of the wallpaper rotation and whether or not you want to update only when you're on Wifi. Unfortunately, Flickr Live Wallpaper lacks the ability to save wallpapers to your Windows Phone for more extended use. However, if you don't want to rotate the images and run across one that you want to use for an extended period of time, just check the "Lock this image as my wallpaper" box.
Flickr Live Wallpaper is a nice option to keep your Windows Phone lockscreen wallpaper fresh. It joins the growing number of quality lockscreen apps in the Windows Phone Store.
Flickr Live Wallpapers is a free app for your Windows Phone and you can find it here at the Windows Phone Store.
UPDATE: It didn't take long but Flickr Live Wallpaper was just updated to version 1.1 that brings a name change and new feature. Flickr Live Wallpaper is now Photostream and you can add galleries from your Windows Phone Pictures Hub as sources. It's a nice feature to allow you mingle your photos with those from Flickr.
Reader comments
Flickr Live Wallpaper: Adding a photographic touch to your Windows Phone 8 lockscreens [Updated]
Really enjoy this app... The only thing I'd add is that the app gives you control over how often you'd like the lockscreen to update, every 30 minutes, 1 hour, 4 hours, 8 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours, 2 days, 4 day, or 7 days.
Also - the app just updated and is now called Photostream...
Ask and you shall receive because now there is an option for how often you want to change the lockscreen.
Oh, I guess i didn't make it clear - I was saying the article should add that the app DOES do that stuff not that I wish that control was added into the app ;).
Weather flow best lock screen options so far.
100000000000000000!
That's over 9000!
the only problem I had with the Weahter Flow Lock screen was that it chewed through my battery life. As soon as I disabled it, batt. life went back to normal.
Uninstalled because of this. Barely made it 3 hours before charging. Could go 15 hours the days before installing and that is with 8 hours of hotspot!
The app doees not find my username?
EDIT: Nevermind. Have to enable search. No thanks.
This is awesome! Hopefully they'll be able to add more sources like picasa and ffffound.
Hey guys, dev here. Was pleasantly surprised to see my app in the wpcentral news feed this morning. Thanks to George Ponder for the article!
Just wanted to let you guys know that I just submitted an update for Photostream that allows downloading the current wallpaper to a local album, and adds 6 different photo sources from 500px. Update should be live within a week or two. Enjoy!
Thank you Brandon, its a cool app.
Article should mention the app is now called Photostream and not Flickr Live Wallpaper. Didn't find in search.
haha, ive been writing an app to do live wallpapers from flickr and its nothing compared to this, this looks great. Might still release it anyway though to say I have an app on the store!
The more I read about windows phone 8, the more envious I feel only having a n900.
It's called 'Photostream' now? Oh oh, has anyone heard of that thing Apple has going by the same name? I think we can expect a sue here.
I have a set of pictures I put together that make fantastic lock screen pictures (High Res), search username "Justin Jansen" and use the "Wallpapers" set, http://www.flickr.com/photos/08jjansen/sets/72157632266033836/