How to change Boot Animation of your Android device

BY Rajesh Pandey

Published 19 Jan 2014

Not many people think much about the boot animation of their device. After all, it is just a 10-30 second long animation that you see only when you restart or switch off your Android device. However, if you are a customization freak, you’d want to change the stock boot animation of your Android device with something that is more in line with your taste. 

Thankfully, changing boot animations on Android devices is no rocket science and can be done pretty easily, provided your Android device has root access (Check out our step-by-step guides on how to root an Android device if you need help).

Boot Box is an app available in the Play that allows users to easily change the boot animation on their Android device. It has a community maintained boot animation repository.

Below is a step-by-step guide on how you can do it. Before you proceed any further, you should know that most of the boot animation changing apps including Boot Box does not work on most of the Android devices from Samsung and HTC. There is currently no workaround to this issue, so you will need to manually replacing the boot animation files from these devices or use a custom ROM.

Step 1: Download Boot Box for free from the Play Store using this link. The application needs root access to work properly.

boot_boxStep 2: When you first start the app, Boot Box will determine the resolution of your Android device and then prompt you to select one from a list. Select the exact resolution of your Android device from the list. If you end up selecting the wrong resolution, the boot animation will not work properly on your Android device.

If the screen resolution of your Android device is not listed, select a resolution that closely matches it. For example, Nexus 7 (2013) owners can select the ‘1080×1920’ resolution despite the device having a resolution of 1920*1200.

Step 3: Boot Box will now attempt to identify the boot animation location on your device. Generally, the app will detect the correct location of where the boot animation is located on your Android device just fine. If it does not though, you can always manually point the app to the correct folder.

Step 4: You will now be asked to create a backup of your current boot animation. I’d highly recommend you to create one since you never know when you might need to restore the original boot animation.

man_stellStep 5: Now, you are all set to change the boot animation of your Android device. Simply swipe from the left to open the navigation drawer and then select the ‘View all animations’ option. By default, Boot Box only shows you those boot animations that are compatible with your Android device.

Select any boot animation that you like and then click on the ‘Download’ button at the top right followed by the ‘Install Animation’ option. You can also check out the ZIP Preview or a YouTube video of the boot animation before you install it. Now press the ‘Install’ button from the pop-up window and wait for the boot animation to be downloaded and installed.

After the boot animation has been installed, reboot your Android device to enjoy your new boot animation.

Let me know how it goes, and please feel free to drop me a line in the comments if you’ve any questions.