Last semester I struggled with Android’s old live wallpaper API and eventually gave up on the idea entirely. But this weekend I discovered a new, much simpler workflow that changed everything. With just a standard activity, a WallpaperService, and its Engine class, I finally built a working live wallpaper—no settings screens, no complex setup, no frustration. In this post, I walk through what changed, why it works so well, and why this new API makes live wallpaper development surprisingly enjoyable again.
