Dev tools · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to I reverse engineered Apple's video wallpapers
Ever since Apple introduced their video wallpapers I wanted to be able to put custom videos there. I decided to reverse engineer and see what I can do. I built Phosphene to sell it, but the existing competitors were polished enough that the time it would have taken to catch up wasn't going to pay off. So I'm open-sourcing it. WallpaperExtensionKit.framework is what powers macOS wallpapers. It controls what’s shows in the Settings app. It took a lot of trial and error to replicate the behavior, but the result is that your custom wallpapers appear alongside everything else. I wanted to have an…
Phosphene is an open-source macOS tool that lets users set custom videos as desktop wallpapers, replicating Apple's video wallpaper functionality. Built by reverse-engineering the WallpaperExtensionKit framework, it… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.
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Backdrop▲170Hi HN, I'm Oskar, a solo indie Mac developer from Sweden. For those in the Mac community, you might know me from my other apps like Sensei and Trim Enabler. For years, I've been frustrated by the lack of customisation of macOS. In particular the Lock Screen which supports animated wallpapers, but only ones provided by Apple. There's never been a way to add your own personal videos. I decided to figure out how to solve this, and the result is Backdrop 2.0. Backdrop is my Live Wallpaper app for Mac, it can play video wallpapers on your desktop. And now it can play on your Lock Screen too. The…
2025 · cindori.com · its alternatives →
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Wallper▲26Hi everyone! I’ve recently launched Wallper, a small project I built because I couldn’t find a lightweight, native-feeling app to apply real 4K video wallpapers on macOS. You can upload your own videos (private or public), apply them to multiple monitors, and the app pauses playback in full-screen mode to save battery. I’d love to hear your thoughts, ideas, or feedback - still very early, but already live and free to try!
Nov 2025 · wallper.app · its alternatives →
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Curated, HD desktop background photos from Unsplash.
2017 · unsplash.com · its alternatives →
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Make and share dynamic wallpapers for macOS
2019 · dynamicwallpaper.club · its alternatives →
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Gorgeous wallpapers on your Mac
2015 · leonspok.tumblr.com · its alternatives →
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Hi, I'm a developer and first time i shipped the real product after observing the startups and indie hackers community for years. I had made so many useless apps [you should check my website https://ansh.life], but this time I built a very useful product that has a number of super easy-to-use tools in one app for video, music, and photo files. Users can compress, convert, resize, and do so much more with easy-to-use tools. Background: I developed a frame-by-frame video cropper to upload cropped landscape videos to Instagram Reels. However, it required FFmpeg, and as a noob video…
2025 · pimosa.app · its alternatives →
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Pixel Soup▲71Dithered live wallpapers your Mac cooks up itself
20d ago · pixelsoup.app · its alternatives →
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Multi-platform parallax wallpaper engine. Contribute to jszczerbinsky/lwp development by creating an account on GitHub.
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
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ScreenSmooth▲226Automatically place text behind objects in images. Create POV-style YouTube thumbnails and viral social posts for free.
Apr 2026 · screensmooth.com · its alternatives →
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Framed▲110Turn screenshots, videos, and code into polished visuals
May 2026 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →
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Vimeo for macOS▲136Full control over your video workflow from your desktop
2018 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →
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video wallpapers for macOS, local, private, hackable
Jul 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
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TransMov▲88Convert, edit, and export videos & animations locally on Mac
Jan 2026 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →
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The premier wallpaper manager for Chrome OS
2022 · crosexperts.com · its alternatives →
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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →