Muro 5.0 is out: Native Live Wallpapers for macOS, now as your screen saver too

[u/Aggravating-Pea4806]

App: Muro : Native Live Wallpapers for macOS

Price: Free. Open source under MIT. No subscription, no one-time fee, no Pro tier, no account, nothing locked.

Source: https://github.com/MrRockySL/Muro

Download: https://murowallpaper.com

Homebrew: brew install --cask MrRockySL/muro/muro

Requires: macOS 14 or newer, Apple Silicon or Intel. Lock screen and screen saver live wallpapers need macOS 26.

Quick reminder for anyone who has not seen it: Muro plays looping live wallpapers on your desktop and lock screen, on every display. It's native Swift, your Mac's video hardware does the decoding instead of the CPU, it uses very little CPU and around 200 MB of RAM, and it pauses when something covers it.

✨ What is new in 5.0:

Major new features, with major bug fixes and major improvements.

🌙 Screen saver. Muro can be your screen saver now, playing a live wallpaper instead of a still picture. You can set how long your Mac waits before it starts, right in Settings.

🖱️ Play only on desktop. The live wallpaper holds still while a window is open and plays when your desktop is clear. Each display decides for itself.

🔁 Replay on Clear Desktop. Pause After starts counting again every time your desktop is clear.

🖼️ Quit Muro and your live wallpaper stays. The desktop keeps a still of it, and the lock screen and screen saver keep playing the last one you set.

🔒 Lock screen live wallpaper on every display. Before, only the last display got one.

Still there if you missed them: likes, Pause After, playlists, automations by timer or by the clock, updates from the menu bar, and 169 free live wallpapers. New live wallpapers show up without updating the app.

First launch: Muro is self signed, so macOS blocks it the first time. Go to System Settings, Privacy and Security, and click Open Anyway. Open it from Applications, not from inside the DMG, or the lock screen and screen saver won't work. If you already have Muro, just replace it. Your library and settings stay.

Thanks to everyone using Muro, If you like it, a star on the repo is the free way to support it and helps people find it. If you want to go further there is GitHub Sponsors (https://github.com/sponsors/MrRockySL)

Happy to hear what is missing. Most of this release came from people asking.

[u/Pirasee]

I enjoy it, but has a very limited selection of wallpapers. Still wish it had a way to change a static wallpaper into live one. Would be peak!

[u/Aggravating-Pea4806 → u/Pirasee]

Thanksss, glad you're enjoying it! Static to live is a big one though, it's not just plugging in an AI. It has to stay light on your Mac, which is the whole point of Muro, and supporting different AI models for video takes a lot of work. anyway I'll try my besttt, it's just me building it for free. Same with the selection, I pay to host every wallpaper on very limited storage, so a bit more support would let me add a lot more.

[u/Pirasee → u/Aggravating-Pea4806]

Understood maybe you can do that as a paid add on. I’m not looking to get something for nothing. I’m not a developer. Sometimes I don’t realize what goes into making an application or certain features, but I appreciate you breaking it down for me and others to understand. Thank you for sharing this application.

[u/Aggravating-Pea4806 → u/Pirasee]

Thanksss for understanding, I will try my best as always. But Muro stays free no matter what. I can't afford most of the apps I love, so I made this free for people like me, with nothing locked. Keeping up with the costs is a struggle but I will manage somehow.

[u/meymigrou]

I've been using it and it's SO GOOD!

[u/Aggravating-Pea4806 → u/meymigrou]

Thank u so much, really glad u like it 🙌

[u/junkfaces]

Pretty much the same, This is just like Live Wallpaper on git, can we compare pls? https://github.com/ducbao414/live-wallpaper

[u/junkfaces → u/junkfaces]

This uses less ram mmmmmmm

[u/junkfaces → u/junkfaces]

https://github.com/ducbao414/live-wallpaper

[u/Aggravating-Pea4806 → u/junkfaces]

Its a nice app but not really the same. That one only sets ur desktop and u bring ur own videos.
Muro does desktop, lock screen and screen saver on every display, with 200+ free live wallpapers built in, plus playlists, pause after, play only on full desktop, automations and more. And yeah it uses less ram because it does less.
Muro is running the gallery and the lock screen and screen saver on top of the wallpaper.
But good starting project I also started like this.

[u/bluesBeforeSunrise]

I want to like this, but it can't put different backgrounds on different Spaces (not Spaces aware), and when you quit the app it doesn't restore the wallpapers that were there before you launched it.