Frequently Asked Questions

Tide is still in a phase called closed testing, so access is gated behind a tester allowlist. After you join the SlumberingThread Testers group and opt in as a web tester, Google Play may take a few hours to actually register you, but once it does you're good to go.

Make sure to use the same Google account for all three steps: joining the group, opting in on the web, and installing from Play. Mixing accounts is the most common reason it doesn't work. If it's been a full day and the install still fails, reach out.

Open any Backdrop from Today, Browse, or your Library and tap Apply. On most Android versions, Android's own picker then asks whether to set it on your Home screen, Lock screen, or both — the same live wallpaper plays on whichever you choose.

Android 10+. Results may vary, but check out our shaders nevertheless as the cheapest option resource-wise.

Anything can work, but you get different results each time. We recommend a default 4:3 ratio (or experiment with full if your camera allows), and focus on 30fps 4k video. We crop video when you create a background, so 4k gives you plenty of wiggle room in there. We do always encode to 30fps at a max of 1440p.

Everything is transcoded on your phone as a 1440p H.265 primary file plus a 1080p H.264 fallback for older decoders. Frame rate is capped at 30fps as your phone's background won't look much different at 60+ and it's a huge battery drain. Makign a background doesn't edit the original video file whatsoever.

Tide repeats your trimmed clip exactly as cut — it doesn't crossfade or blend the seam for you. Whether the loop feels seamless comes down entirely to what you pick in Trim: choose in/out points where the framing and motion roughly line up, or lean into a hard cut if that's the effect you're after. Either way, Trim needs at least 3 seconds selected to publish.

A single subject sitting clearly forward in the shot while being close to the camera works best — that contrast is what gives Tide's depth tool something to actually push against. A flat landscape, a busy scene, or several subjects at roughly the same distance produce a much subtler effect since there's less depth variation to draw from.

This matters more if you haven't downloaded the depth tool yet (Settings → Content, about 33MB). Without it, 3D Photos fall back to a lighter two-layer effect that specifically needs a clear photo of a person — it's built on face/body detection, not general depth, so it won't do much with a landscape or an object. Downloading the model unlocks real depth-driven parallax on any close subject, not just people.

Free covers everything in the app, we just restrict watermark-free playing and unlimited downloads to Pro users due to costs. Free users do get 5 free downloads a week though.

$1.99/month, $21.99/year, or $39.99 once for lifetime access — see the Pricing page for the full breakdown. Subscriptions are billed and managed entirely through Google Play: cancel anytime from there, effective at the end of your current period. Refunds follow Google Play's own refund policy — see the Terms of Service for details.

No. Publishing is a Free-tier feature on every plan — just sign in for accountability sake (see what we did there?).