How to use the New Wallpaper Creator in iOS 26.5
About this QuickTip
Apple has just added a brand new way to create custom iPhone wallpapers in iOS 26.5 - no apps or downloads needed.
Transcript
Apple just added a way to make your own custom iPhone wallpapers right on your device. That’s right - no apps, no downloads. It’s built right into iOS 26.5, which just came out. If you’ve not updated yet, make sure you do that.
And these are not just static wallpapers. They’re beautifully animated too, and I’ll show you that later. Before we get started, if you enjoy iPhone tips like this, please do subscribe.
Okay, let’s show you how this works. We’re going to go to the Lock Screen on the iPhone, and we’re going to long press in the middle to go into edit mode. From here, tap on the plus in the bottom right-hand corner and we get our wallpaper gallery.
From here, we’re going to scroll down a little bit until we find the Pride section, and we’re going to choose the new Vertical Stripes wallpaper as part of the Pride collection this year.
Now, when you go onto there, you’re going to get 11 preset styles, which you can swipe through with various colour palettes chosen for you. But if you keep swiping all the way to the end, well, that’s where the real magic happens because here you can choose any amount of colours from 1 to 12, and it will create your own bespoke wallpaper using the colours that you’ve chosen.
Every time you select or deselect a colour, the wallpaper is going to regenerate, meaning you get something completely personal and bespoke to you. Once you’re happy, press Save in the corner.
And then you can see how beautiful it looks against that Liquid Glass clock on iOS 26. But there is one more secret here, and before I show you, make sure you hit that subscribe button for more tips just like this.
Okay, here’s my favourite part. Just lock your phone with your Always-On Display. That wallpaper is going to beautifully fade down to thin vertical bars with just that colour peeking through. And then, when you tap on the screen to wake it, it’s going to blossom into that full-colour wallpaper again for you.
It really is beautiful. And that’s it. If you enjoyed this video, I think you’re going to love this one.
Technical details: This QuickTip was recorded on an iPhone 17 Pro Max running iOS 26.5 in May 2026.
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