10 Coolest Lock Screen Apps For Your Android Phone

Google had lock screen widgets enabled at some point but removed the option when Android 5.0 (Lollipop) was released in late 2014. There was a weather app, clock widgets, a trip overview from your navigation app, and more. They weren't the fanciest widgets, but it was nice to have them and know that the technology was there to be improved on. Since many people loved and used these lock screen widgets, it seemed like the decision came out of nowhere.

Since then, Android users now have the option to add some widgets to the lock screen, but these widgets won't show up all the time. If you tap on your lock screen clock, you should see a default widget menu pop up. You can choose between your music player info, your next alarm, a Today's Schedule feature, the weather, saved modes and routines, a Digital Wellbeing overview, and a voice recorder. 

Google also launched a bunch of useful lock screen widgets for iPhones, so perhaps there's hope for more advancements coming to Android's lock screen widgets. For now, there are quite a few unique Android apps that can bring some extra color and features to your lock screen.

AppLock comes with PIN and pattern lock security, and it can capture a selfie of any intruder trying to get into your phone when they enter the wrong PIN or pattern lock. The style of Android's traditional lock screen can be a bit boring, and AppLock lets you show off your style with cool live themes.

Instead of seeing a 10-number layout, you could replace those numbers with emojis or hearts on your lock screen. Or, you can play around with a live theme that comes with fun animations that make your lock screen come to life. There's one live theme that splashes digital bubbles when you pop the bubble holding a number in your PIN combination.

In addition to giving your lock screen extra security, AppLock can also help you lock individual apps on your phone. This includes your photo gallery apps, SMS or other messaging apps, email apps, and other system apps. So if your phone is ever left unlocked and unattended, you can rest easy knowing that your private photos and messages have another layer of protection.

If you don't want much to change about your lock screen besides its style, check out the Keypad Lock Screen app. Once you download the app, you have to enable PIN lock in the app's settings and create a new password within this app specifically. After that, you'll be free to explore everything the app has to offer and start customizing your lock screen's look.

There are a lot of beautiful, pre-selected wallpapers to choose from, which is great if you constantly want to switch up your wallpaper, but don't have the energy to find the perfect picture. Regardless of which wallpaper you choose, you'll have the option of a 10-number layout or a nine-dot layout sitting on top of the wallpaper. With the nine-dot layout, you can draw any lines or shapes you want but have to be able to do it in one motion and only touch each dot once.

You can also use photos from your own personal gallery as your wallpaper, but this is something you can do by default with Android. Then, the Keypad Lock Screen app offers a few unlock animations and sounds to choose from.

The Door Lock Screen app by Q Locker is an inventive way to open your phone. In short, you'll see a variety of different doors on your lock screen, and they all open up just like real doors when you unlock your phone.

There are over 15 unique door themes, including single and double door animations. If your audio is turned on, you'll hear a sound when the door locks, unlocks, and opens. You can drag, swipe, and slide to open the door and you'll see authentic lighting and shadows as if the door was actually opening.

You can choose between light and dark themes, as well as whether or not to unlock your notification bar. If you choose to unlock the notification bar, you'll be able to pull down your notification drawer on your lock screen to access quick settings like your flashlight or your mobile hotspot toggle.

If you have a PIN enabled on your lock screen, you'll need to enter this first to open the door and unlock your phone. The Door Lock Screen app even has an Intruder Selfie feature, which will snap a secret selfie of anyone who enters your PIN incorrectly or tries to open your phone with a non-registered fingerprint. It'll show the date and time on the intruder photo when you unlock your phone.

The Lock Screen iOS 15 app is perfect if you want your lock screen to resemble an iPhone. Pair this app with an iPhone launcher that will give your Android an Apple look, and you might just fool yourself into thinking you have an iPhone. Okay, probably not, but it's better than shelling out over $1,000 for the latest iPhone if you're trying to work with what you've currently got.

You can manage all your notifications from the lock screen with this app enabled, just with an iOS look. You can tap a single notification or a group of notifications to view them for that app and swipe left over a notification to view, manage, or clear it. To do this, you'll need to make sure the app is granted permission for notification access.

The app requires other permissions for full access, including camera permission so you can open your camera from the lock screen, the read phone state permission to turn off your lock screen while calling, draw over screen to display the app over your current lock screen, and read/write external storage to download more wallpapers from Lock Screen iOS 15.

Wave Live Wallpapers Maker 3D is the perfect app to download if you want an insanely large collection of live wallpapers. Static lock screen wallpapers are yesterday's news, and 3D live wallpapers are in. Lock screen wallpapers have been the perfect way to show off people's unique personalities for years, and a moving wallpaper is bound to be a conversation starter.

With this app, you have two main options to customize your lock screen wallpaper. You can use the live wallpaper maker to create your own unique wallpaper, or you can choose from the vast library of moving wallpapers the app has to offer. There are a ton of different themes to explore, including Nature, Animals, Art, Love, Tech, Fantasy, Cyberpunk, Animated, and more.

You'll also find a variety of effects, like Parallax 2D or 3D, Live 3D, or video wallpapers. Parallax 2D wallpapers change the viewpoint on your display, so you see your wallpaper move within two layers, and Parallax 3D creates a 3D wallpaper around a single main element when moving your phone. Live 3D wallpapers are interactive and react when you touch them. Then, video wallpapers are actively moving wallpapers made from video footage and special 3D effects.

When you've selected the perfect live wallpaper for your lock screen, you can use the app to find a home screen wallpaper too.

In the newest Android version (and many previous versions as well), there has been a built-in Always On option. The Always On feature allows your phone to show the date and time on your lock screen while keeping everything else black, so you can see important info but save on battery life. If you want that experience and then some, the Always On AMOLED app may be for you.

With the Always On AMOLED app, you can view notifications without touching your device, see the weather outside at a glance, and customize the font and clock style on your lock screen. The app comes with backgrounds and wallpapers, an automatic night mode that dims the screen in a dark environment, and a feature called Pocket Mode that locks your smartphone when you put it in your pocket.

One of the app's coolest features is the Always On Memo feature. You can quickly write a reminder or scribble a note on the Always On display without ever unlocking your phone. Then, you can customize how you want the phone to wake up, with options of double tapping, swiping, or using the volume keys.

The Gesture Lock Screen app lets you change the way your phone is unlocked. Instead of entering a PIN or using a fingerprint like you would by default with the Android OS, you can draw a shape instead. You can set a number, a letter, a symbol, a signature, or anything else you can think of as your gesture password, and that's what you'll need to draw whenever you want to unlock your phone.

You can have multiple gestures registered within the app so you have more than one option to open your phone. There are invisible, solid, and translucent gesture colors to play around with. If you don't want anyone to see exactly what you're drawing, the invisible option is great because nothing will show up on your screen while you're moving your finger.

If someone draws the wrong gesture or enters an incorrect PIN, the app snaps a photo of whoever's trying to get into your phone. You'll receive an intruder alert and the photo to your email address, and you'll see an intruder notification when your phone is unlocked next. There will be a date and time stamp on all intruder photos.

You'll be able to see all your important notifications on the lock screen, including unread messages, missed calls, your music player, upcoming alarms, and more. You can customize the background, text color, size, and position of your notifications. Then, you can also customize your lock screen further with different wallpapers from a local gallery, animations, and unique date and time settings.

If you want to spice up your lock screen with some animated live videos, check out the Live Backgrounds & Lockscreen app. There's a huge collection of live, 2K, and 4K wallpapers, and it continues to grow every single day so there's always something new to see. Some of the professionally shot live wallpapers truly look like they're coming to life on your phone's lock screen.

One of the ways the app's collection of live wallpapers continues to grow is by letting its users submit their own videos. If there's a video you've shot on your phone that you want to use as your wallpaper, you can set it as your wallpaper or submit it to the app developers to share with everyone.

Everyone has those videos on their phones that make them smile every time they see them, like your child being silly or your pet doing something ridiculously cute. Setting one of these adorable videos as your lock screen wallpaper will give you an instant happiness boost every time you open your phone.

Overall, the app is incredibly easy to use and it doesn't take up a lot of space on your device. Plus, you can always clear the app's download cache at any time if you need extra space on your phone.

Anyone who finds themselves with a million things on their daily to-do list would benefit from the LockScreen Calendar app. From your lock screen, you'll be able to see all the important events of the day in a calendar view, along with your most important to-do items and schedules.

You can create to-do lists as a simple memo without a set schedule, and check items off as you go. Or, you can set up a scheduled to-do item that'll show up on your calendar once or multiple times if you need that to-do item to repeat. You can also sort your to-do items and schedules into folders, like Grocery, School, Chores, and so on. This app is basically a planner's dream, putting your most time-sensitive to-dos front and center every time you open your phone.

Though you'll be able to see your calendar and to-do items every time you access your phone, you can also set up notifications to ensure you don't miss anything important. You can customize the background, font size, and add extra details to your memos, folders, and calendar events.

The Wallshow app is essentially a slideshow of all your favorite wallpapers, displayed on your phone's lock screen, home screen, or both. All you have to do is organize the photos you want in your slideshow into a folder or a photo collection. Then, you tell the app which folder or photo collection you want it to pull pictures from.

You can set the app to change pictures when the screen is turned on or unlocked, or you can set a time interval between photos changing. So you could see a new photo every five seconds, three minutes, or even every day at midnight. Or, there's also a Wallshow wallpaper widget you can add to your screen that allows you to manually go forward to your next wallpaper photo.

This is a great way to shake up your lock screen design if you get bored of seeing the same wallpaper every time you check your phone. You can create an album full of photos of family and friends, or you could create an album of inspirational quotes or decorative designs. Or, you could do a mixture of everything!