GoKawiilWhen Apple released iOS 26 in September, the company gave your iPhone the ability to customize chat backgrounds in Messages. Chat backgrounds can add a fun, personal touch to messages. They can give you a visual identifier for each thread so you can easily tell if you're messaging the right person or group, too.
With this new feature, you can use your own picture as a background, choose one of Apple's premade backgrounds or, if you have an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone, generate a unique background. Just know that if you add a background to a chat, everyone in that chat will see it. So choose carefully.
Here's how to change a chat background in Messages on iOS 26, and what you need to know about the feature.
How to add and change a chat background in Messages
1. Open Messages.
2. Tap into a chat with a saved contact.
3. Tap either the person's or group's name near the top of the chat.
4. Tap Backgrounds.
You could see seven Background options depending on what iPhone you have. Apple/Screenshot by CNET
You'll see up to seven options near the top of the Backgrounds menu: None (default), Photo, Color, Sky, Water, Aurora and Playground on Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhones.
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