Pixel wallpapers are finally getting the shuffle feature iPhone users have had for years

Changing wallpaper IRL: painful. Changing wallpaper on a Pixel: about to be a piece of cake.

Google is working on a shuffle function for Pixel wallpapers that would let you set up a library for your phone to shuffle through. This was first spotted by Android Authority and, yes, has been a feature on many phones for a while, including iPhones.

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Coming to Android 17

The auto-refresh feature is in Android 17 QPR1 beta 5 and seems to work like Photo Shuffle on iOS.

A screengrab shows the feature as Shuffle Your Wallpaper, with the description, “Create an album of your favorite people & pets to auto-refresh your wallpaper.”

If it works like the iPhone feature, then you should be able to select albums, allowing you to go beyond just people and pets. You could choose an album of travel photos to catch glimpses of peaceful vacations past or images of favorite quotes for some spontaneous inspiration.

The auto-refresh can be set to hourly, daily, sunrise, sunset, and an option that just says “on tap.”

A sort of solution until it launches

If you crave some whimsy in your wallpapers before the feature hits Pixels, you can shuffle wallpapers, albeit to ones Google has chosen using Collections by Google.

Open Settings on your phone and select Wallpaper & style > More wallpapers. Then select the categories under Collections. In the top right corner, tap the shuffle/auto-refresh icon to set it to rotate.

There are solid colors and twelve categories to choose from, including the metropolitan-themed Cityscapes, works of art through Google Arts & Culture, and graphic design with Motif.

Alternatively, there are apps like Wallpaper Changer on the Play Store that let you create shuffling wallpapers of your own images and Muzei Live Images that swaps out famous works of art.