How to Change Wallpaper on iPhone & iPad

Ever wondered how to change the wallpaper background on iPhone or iPad? If you’re new to the iPhone or iPad ecosystem, one of the early things you may want to learn is how to change the default wallpaper on your device to something else, whether it’s one of the other default options or a photo of your own.

The default iPhone background may vary depending on the iPhone or iPad model you have, but you can use any other wallpaper of your choice if you want to personalize it. Apple gives you a decent selection of stock stills, dynamic, and live wallpapers in the wallpaper gallery, and if that’s not enough, you can use any photo or picture as your iPhone background or iPad wallpaper too. You can even use a separate wallpaper for the lock screen and the home screen, furthering your customization options.

Read along to learn how to change the wallpaper on your iPhone and iPad.

How to Change & Customize Wallpaper Backgrounds on iPhone or iPad

Changing the default wallpaper is a pretty simple and straightforward procedure on both the iPhone and iPad, regardless of what iOS or iPadOS version it’s running. Here are the steps:

1. Head over to “Settings” from the home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
   
   
2. In the settings menu, scroll down and tap on “Wallpaper” located right below the accessibility settings.
   
   
3. Here, you’ll be able to see your current home screen and lock screen wallpapers. Tap on “Choose a New Wallpaper” to continue. You also have the option to dim the wallpaper when you’re using Dark mode.
   
   
4. Next, select the type of wallpaper that you want to use. You can choose All Photos if you want to use a picture from your photo gallery.
   
   
5. Now, simply tap on the wallpaper that you want to use.
   
   
6. You’ll get a preview of what the wallpaper would look like on your lock screen. Tap on “Set” located at the bottom-right corner of your screen.
   
   
7. Now, you’ll have the option to set it as your home screen background, lock screen wallpaper, or both. Tap on your preferred choice and the wallpaper will now be set.
   
   

That’s pretty much all there is to it. As you can see it’s pretty easy to change the wallpaper on your iPhone and iPad, so try it out and set something of your liking.

This is just one of the ways you can set a new wallpaper on your iOS device instead of using the default one. While setting a new wallpaper, you’ll also have the option to turn on or turn off perspective zoom. This gives you a parallax effect as you tilt your screen, the wallpaper moves around – it’s kind of hard to explain but it’s fairly easy to observe if you try it out on your own iPhone or iPad.

Apple’s Dynamic wallpapers gradually move on your screen, whereas the Live wallpapers react to your touch of the device. If your device is running iOS 13, iPadOS 13, or later, you’ll also have access to a bunch of unique stills that’d automatically change when you switch from Light Appearance to Dark mode, whether manually or automatically.

To make things even easier, you also have the option to set any picture as your background wallpaper by using the stock Photos app and setting the wallpaper directly from there too. Simply find and open the picture you want to set as wallpaper, tap on the Share icon, and choose “Use as Wallpaper” from the menu.

We hope you were able to use a great custom wallpaper or personal picture as your iPhone or iPad’s background wallpaper, and if you need some inspiration we’ve got a bunch of wallpaper posts to browse through. What do you think of this process? Let us know in the comments any thoughts, experiences, or opinions!