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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-04T01:00:09+00:00

Can I get a wallpaper changed event in a broadcast receiver? I need to

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Can I get a wallpaper changed event in a broadcast receiver?
I need to detect if the user changed the wall paper.
How could I do it?

What I am doing is this:
I have an app that changes wallpaper automaticly.
If the user changes it manually using a different aplication I would like to notice it and ask the users if he/she wants to add that new wallpaper to the list in my application

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    There is only a broadcast for when a wallpaper image changes: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/Intent.html#ACTION_WALLPAPER_CHANGED

    To do what you want, you will need to have more logic to use this to determine if the wallpaper has been changed to something besides an image: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/WallpaperManager.html#getWallpaperInfo()

    To be honest, if you are making a wallpaper that is going to change, you really should consider just writing a live wallpaper. This will fit much more comfortably into the system: you can change what you are showing whenever you want, and it is clear when the user has selected a different wallpaper because your live wallpaper will be stopped.

    Also you need to be extremely careful about the use of ACTION_WALLPAPER_CHANGED, because it can get you into bad interactions with other applications. Here is the documentation for it that will appear in the next API:

    /**
 * Broadcast Action:  The current system wallpaper has changed.  See
 * {@link android.app.WallpaperManager} for retrieving the new wallpaper.
 * This should <em>only</em> be used to determine when the wallpaper
 * has changed to show the new wallpaper to the user.  You should certainly
 * never, in response to this, change the wallpaper or other attributes of
 * it such as the suggested size.  That would be crazy, right?  You'd cause
 * all kinds of loops, especially if other apps are doing similar things,
 * right?  Of course.  So please don't do this.
 *
 * @deprecated Modern applications should use
 * {@link android.view.WindowManager.LayoutParams#FLAG_SHOW_WALLPAPER
 * WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_SHOW_WALLPAPER} to have the wallpaper
 * shown behind their UI, rather than watching for this broadcast and
 * rendering the wallpaper on their own.
 */

    True story.

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