How to change Messages backgrounds in iOS 26

You can now change the backgrounds of conversations in Messages for iOS 26 and iPadOS 26

Bring more life and personalization to your group chats, by adding backgrounds to your conversations in Messages in iOS 26 and iPadOS 26. Here’s how to change yours for the better.

Messages is an essential app for iPhone users, with it used to communicate with your closest relations. However, people may be getting a bit bored of seeing the usual grey and blue (and sometimes green) speech bubbles floating up a plain white page.

During WWDC, Apple finally made a change to Messages, allowing users to select the background for conversations. A work chat could be jazzed up with corporate-approved branding, while speaking to parents can be done to a background of favorite pets, for example.

As well as making conversations less formal, the backgrounds also serve a more practical purpose. By using different backgrounds for your conversations with other contacts, or group messaging sessions, you can more easily tell at a glance what conversation is currently visible without necessarily seeing the actual content.

What the feature does is bring to Messages something that has already been made available on other messaging platforms for some time. It’s nice that Apple has caught up, though it’s still short of some of the more outlandish personalization options available elsewhere.

Messages backgrounds prerequisites

The first thing to remember is that this is a change that requires devices to be running on iOS 26 or iPadOS 26. You cannot change the background in earlier versions at all.

Also, any changes you make to the background propagate across your logged-in-devices, if they’re on the new operating systems. A background for a conversation set on an iPhone will be visible in the same thread on an iPad, or on a Mac, for example.

Users of older iOS versions will not see the backgrounds at all, as it will remain the same white as usual. Also, if your conversations sync with other devices you own that are not on the 26 generation of operating systems, they won’t see the backgrounds either.

The backgrounds can also be seen by others, as was found out in an AppleInsider group text. With that in mind, consider your choice of backgrounds, as they may be visible by other parties.

The instructions are also identical across iOS 26 and iPadOS 26.

How to change the Messages conversation background in iOS 26

Three smartphone screens displaying a messaging app conversation, contact details, and background customization options with various colorful circular and scenic image choices.

How to access backgrounds in Messages for iOS 26

Open Messages, then open the conversation you want to personalize.

Tap the title of the conversation. This can be the group thread name or the name of the contact it is with.

Select the tab for Backgrounds.

Select the background you want, either from the circular options or one under Suggestions.

Once a background is selected, swipe between styles to choose a color palette. Use Pinch to Crop if necessary. Once finished, tap the blue tick in the top-right corner.

Tap the back button in the top left corner.

Background variations

You have quite a few options to select from, but besides the Suggestions, you have six broad categories to choose from.

Three smartphone screens with themed backgrounds: a purple cat, abstract colors, and a tree with a doghouse. Each shows text bubbles in a messaging interface.

Example wallpapers for iOS 26 Messages

Photos: Uses your photo library. Use the Photos, Collections, and other categories to bring up different options, or use the search in the bottom right to find a specific image.

Color: It’s a wave-like visualization, focused on gradients between two colors. Swipe between some preset combos, or tap the color circles in the bottom left and right to select your own.

Sky: An animated skyline, with swipes varying the time of day and the amount of cloud cover.

Water: An animated underwater scene, showing caustic lights on a sandy floor. Switch between Light and Dark variants by swiping.

Aurora: An animated Aurora Borealis. Swipe to switch between preset color shemes.

Playground: Generate a background using Image Playground. Write a description for a scene and tap from the suggestions list to create a prompt, which will produce an image for a background.