This feature changes the background for everyone in the chat, as well.

Zachary McAuliffe Staff writer

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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. And Apple introduced chat backgrounds to Messages when the company released iOS 26 in September.

With this new feature, you can make your own picture a background, use one of Apple's premade backgrounds and, if you have an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone, generate your own unique background. Just know that if you add a background to a chat, everyone in that chat will see that background. So choose carefully.

Here's how to change a chat background in Messages with iOS 26 and what to know about the feature. 

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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.

Color, Sky, Water and Aurora are all abstract, live backgrounds. Tapping any of these also gives you multiple filters you can choose from. For instance, tapping Sky gives you the options of Dusk, Haze, Sunset and three other filters. 

The Dusk filter is my favorite Sky background.

Apple/Screenshot by CNET

If you tap Photo, you can choose any of the photos in your Library to be your background. After selecting a photo, you can crop the image to better fit the screen or apply a filter to the image. When you're happy with the background, tap the checkmark in the top right corner of your screen and the photo will become your background for that chat.

Pets can make nice backgrounds.

Apple/Screenshot by CNET

The Playground option opens Image Playground, Apple's AI image generation tool, and is therefore available only on Apple Intelligence iPhones. You can describe an image by typing a description into the textbox at the bottom of the screen, or you can pick different suggestions and themes Image Playground offers. Once Playground generates a background you like, tap the checkmark in the top right corner of your screen. You will then be taken to a new page where you can apply a filter to the background if you want. Then, tap the checkmark in the top right corner of your screen again and that image will be your chat background.

Beneath all these options, there's also a Suggestions section. These suggestions are mostly filled with photos and an option for Image Playground on specific iPhones. Tapping any of the photo suggestions takes you to the same menu where you can resize or add a filter to the photo before accepting it. Tapping the Image Playground option just opens that menu -- it's kind of odd that this is a suggestion as well as an option, and they don't seem to do anything different.

That seems like a nice, cozy library.

Apple/Screenshot by CNET

If you don't like any of these options, or you get tired of them, you can always remove the background by choosing the default option, None. 

Be aware that if you add, change or remove a chat background, the other people in the chat will see that alteration. So it might not be a good idea to make the family chat background a picture of you doing a kegstand.

And don't forget, you can add or alter chat backgrounds only with people you have saved in your contacts. Otherwise, you won't see the Backgrounds option mentioned above.

Do I have to choose a background for every chat?

Everyone will see a chat background when you choose one.

Patrick Holland/CNET

No, and if you choose a background for one chat, it won't carry over to any other chats. So the chat with your parents might have a picture of your graduation as the background, and the chat with your siblings might have a picture of you giving them a noogie as the background.

This can be a nice visual cue for you to help you keep track of who you're talking with. For example, you and your spouse might have a chat background of hearts. If you aren't paying attention and tap into a chat and don't see your hearts background, you know you shouldn't text this person and ask them to pick up toilet paper from the store on their way home.

Similarly, if you have backgrounds for most of your group chats and you get a message from a chat without a background, you know you should double-check who is in the chat so you don't boldly announce to strangers that you survived a bathroom trip without toilet paper. 

For more iOS news, here's what to know about iOS 26.2 and what was included in iOS 26.1. You can also check out our iOS 26 cheat sheet for other tips and tricks.

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