Android and customization go hand to hand. The open nature of Android gives its users a great control over customizing each and every aspect of the device. Some choose to go the long way and root their device in order to install a custom ROM to get a tight control over various areas of the OS, while some choose not to get into all this stuff and stick to the basic customization stuff like launchers, icon packs, wallpapers, etc.
Adding a live wallpaper on your device is one of the easiest ways to freshen things up as they are much more lively, animated and interactive than static wallpapers.
The very first live wallpaper was introduced with Nexus One running Android Eclair (version 2.1) in 2010.
One thinking that has been attached with live wallpapers is that they drain the battery of your device very fast. That may be the case in the past but now six years have passed since its inception and a lot of improvements have been made to it.
Earlier live wallpapers were just a flashy gimmick that was more distractive than pleasant. They made browsing the home screen a bit difficult, not going well with the icons. But now things have changed. Most of the live wallpapers are now well coded and optimized.
So the question now is since live wallpaper these days are well optimized, do they drain the battery? Yes, they do. As live wallpapers depend on your phone’s CPU and GPU for rendering purpose they will consume battery. Do they drain a considerable amount of battery that you have to stop using them? No, they don’t. In my experience, I’ve never seen any reputed live wallpaper like Chrooma or Minima consuming more than 2% of battery. I mean, there’s a reason they are reputed and loved by everyone.
There is another belief that live wallpapers consume battery only when they are active i.e. when you are staring at your home screen. I never stress much on this point as I rarely see any battery drain via live wallpapers.
However, there are some live wallpapers that give the battery a more significant beating than others. You can check how much battery your live wallpaper uses by going to Settings > About> Battery > Battery Use. If you see that it takes less than 5%, it’s absolutely ok.
The only advice I can give is that you should stop worrying about battery drain and start enjoying amazing live wallpapers. Just make sure to read user comments in the play store and use only those live wallpapers which are well optimized.
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