Apple launched iOS 26 on Sept. 15, and replace introduced a brand new Liquid Glass redesign, call screening and plenty of hidden features to your iPhone. The replace additionally enables you to add backgrounds to your chats in Messages, supplying you with a visible identifier for every thread so you possibly can simply inform for those who’re messaging the appropriate individual or group.
With this new function, you may make your personal image a background, use one in all Apple’s premade backgrounds and, when you have an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone, you possibly can generate your personal distinctive background.
Here is the best way to change a chat background in Messages with iOS 26 and what tot know in regards to the function.
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How one can add and alter a chat background in Messages
1. Open Messages.
2. Faucet right into a chat with a saved contact.
3. Faucet both the individual’s or group’s title close to the highest of the chat.
4. Faucet Backgrounds.
You can see seven Background choices relying on what iPhone you have got.
You may see as much as seven choices close to the highest of the Backgrounds menu: None (default), Picture, Coloration, Sky, Water, Aurora and Playground on Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhones.
Coloration, Sky, Water and Aurora are all summary, dwell backgrounds. Tapping any of those additionally provides you a number of filters you possibly can select from. As an illustration, tapping Sky provides you the choices of Nightfall, Haze, Sundown and three different filters.
The Nightfall filter is my favourite Sky background.
If you happen to faucet Picture, you possibly can select any of the pictures in your Library to be your background. After choosing a photograph, you possibly can crop the picture to raised match the display or apply a filter to the picture. While you’re pleased with the background, faucet the checkmark within the high proper nook of your display and the photograph will change into your background for that chat.
Pets could make good backgrounds.
The Playground choice opens Image Playground, Apple’s AI picture technology instrument, and is due to this fact obtainable solely on Apple Intelligence iPhones. You’ll be able to describe a picture by typing an outline into the textbox on the backside of the display, or you possibly can choose totally different strategies and themes Picture Playground presents. As soon as Playground generates a background you want, faucet the checkmark within the high proper nook of your display. You’ll then be taken to a brand new web page the place you possibly can apply a filter to the background in order for you. Then, faucet the checkmark within the high proper nook of your display once more and that picture will probably be your chat background.
Beneath all these choices, there’s additionally a Options part. These strategies are principally stuffed with pictures and an choice for Picture Playground on particular iPhones. Tapping any of the photograph strategies takes you to the identical menu the place you possibly can resize or add a filter to the photograph earlier than accepting it. Tapping the Picture Playground choice simply opens that menu — it is sort of odd that this can be a suggestion in addition to an choice, they usually do not appear to do something totally different.
That looks as if a pleasant, cozy library.
If you happen to do not like every of those choices, otherwise you get bored with them, you possibly can all the time take away the background by selecting the default choice, None.
Remember that for those who add, change or take away a chat background, the opposite individuals within the chat will see that alteration. So it won’t be a good suggestion to make the household chat background an image of you doing a kegstand.
And do not forget, you possibly can add or alter chat backgrounds solely with individuals you have got saved in your contacts. In any other case, you will not see the Backgrounds choice talked about above.
Do I’ve to decide on a background for each chat?
Everybody will see a chat background once you select one.
No, and for those who select a background for one chat, it will not carry over to some other chats. So the chat along with your mother and father might need an image of your commencement because the background, and the chat along with your siblings might need an image of you giving them a noogie because the background.
This may also be a pleasant visible cue for you that will help you hold monitor of who you are speaking with. For instance, you and your partner might need a chat background of hearts. If you happen to aren’t paying consideration and faucet right into a chat and do not see your hearts background, you realize you should not textual content this individual and ask them to select up rest room paper from the shop on their means house.
Equally, when you have backgrounds for many of your group chats and also you get a message from a chat with no background, you realize it’s best to double-check who’s within the chat so you do not boldly announce to strangers that you just survived a rest room journey with out rest room paper.
For extra on iOS 26, here is my review of the OS, the best way to scale back the Liquid Glass results and the best way to block spam calls within the replace. You may also take a look at our iOS 26 cheat sheet.
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