Here’s how to add a wallpaper to text chats in iOS 26

IOS 26 Beta brings chat wallpapers to the messages, which gives a visible identifier for each chat so you can know if you are sending the right person or the right collection. It is a good quality of life update that can help you distinguish between whether you are writing your family chat or your family chat, minus your unanimous uncle that you do not agree with.

Apple has released the first general beta of iOS 26 on July 24, and Beta brought a new liquid glass design and other new features for developers and the experimental version laboratory. The experimental version also brought a set of changes to messages, including adding wallpapers to the chats with reserved contacts.

Here’s how to change the chat wallpaper in messages with iOS 26.

Don’t forget, IOS 26 is still in beta. This means that the update may be the carts that are drawn by animals for you, and the life of your device’s battery may be affected, so it is better to keep these problems away from your primary device. If you want to test the experimental version, I recommend downloading it on a secondary device.

Apple can also set chat wallpapers and other updates before the final version of iOS 26 this fall.

How to add and change the chat wallpaper in messages

1. Open Messages.
2. Take advantage of the chat with a reserved contact.
3. Click on the name of the person or group near the top of the chat.
4. handle backgrounds.

You will see up to seven options near the top background menu: nothing (default), pictures, color, sky, water, eurora and an iPhone stadium that supports intelligence.

Color, sky, water and eurla are all abstract, live wallpapers. Clicking on any of these multiple filters that you can choose from. For example, Tapping Sky gives you dusk options, fog, sunset and three other filters.

If you click the image, you can choose any of the pictures in your library to be your background. After selecting an image, you can bomb the image to fit the screen better or a filter application on the image. When you are satisfied with the background, click the selection mark in the upper right corner of your screen and the image will become your background for that chat.

It opens the Playground Playground Playground, which is Apple’s Apple’s Apple Photo tool, and therefore it is only available on iPhone Apple Intelligence. You can describe a picture by writing a description in the text box at the bottom of the screen, or you can choose different suggestions and topics. Once you create Playground wallpaper you want, click CheckMark in the upper right corner of your screen. You will be transferred to a new page where you can apply a filter to the background if you want. Next, press the selection mark in the upper right corner of the screen again and that image will be your chat wallpaper.

Under all these options, there is also a suggestion section. These suggestions are often filled with pictures and a option for the photo stadium on specific iPhone devices. Clicking on any of the photo suggestions takes you to the same menu where you can change the size or add a filter to the image before accepting it. Click on the option of the photo field only opens that list – it is strange that this is a proposal as well as an option, and it seems that it does not seem to do anything different.

If you don’t like any of these options, or tired of them, you can always remove the background by choosing the default option, nothing.

Be aware that if you add, change or remove the chat wallpaper, you will see other people in the chat this change. So it may not be good to make the family chat wallpaper a picture of your programming.

And don’t forget, you can only add or change chat wallpapers with the people you saved in your contacts. Otherwise, you will not see backgrounds The above option.

Should I choose a background for each chat?

No, and if you choose a single chat wallpaper, it will not be transferred to any other conversations. So, chatting with your parents may have a picture of your graduation as a background, and chat with your brothers may have a picture that gives them nooogie as a background.

This can also be a nice visual signal to help you track those you talk to. For example, you and your wife may have heart chat wallpaper. If you are not aware of and benefit from chat and do not see the background of your hearts, you know that you should not send a text message to this person and ask them to take the toilet paper from the store on their way to the house.

Likewise, if you have wallpapers for most of your group chats and get a message from the chat without a background, then you know that you should check the chat so that you do not boldly announce to strangers that you survived the bathroom trip without the toilet paper.

To learn more about iOS 26, here is my first impressive version, and how to reduce the effects of liquid glass on your iPhone and all the new features that Apple said will bring to your device later this year.