How to Change Your Background on Any Device
Changing your background — whether it's your desktop wallpaper, video call backdrop, or lock screen image — is one of the most common personalisation tasks across every platform. The steps vary significantly depending on your device, operating system, and the type of background you're trying to change. Here's a clear breakdown of how it works across different setups.
What "Changing Your Background" Actually Means
The phrase covers several distinct scenarios:
- Desktop or home screen wallpaper — the static or dynamic image behind your icons
- Lock screen background — the image displayed before you log in or unlock your device
- Video call virtual background — a digital replacement for your real environment during calls
- Browser or app backgrounds — themes applied within specific software like Chrome or Outlook
Each one is controlled differently, and the options available to you depend on your operating system, device hardware, and in some cases, the apps you're using.
Changing Your Wallpaper on Windows
On Windows 10 and Windows 11, the quickest route is to right-click directly on the desktop and select Personalize. This opens the Settings panel where you can choose from:
- Picture — a single static image from your local files
- Slideshow — rotates through a folder of images at set intervals
- Solid color — a flat colour with no image
- Windows Spotlight (Windows 11) — automatically pulls in curated images from Microsoft's servers
You can also set different wallpapers on different monitors if you're running a multi-display setup. Right-clicking a specific image file and choosing Set as desktop background skips the Settings menu entirely.
Changing Your Wallpaper on macOS
On a Mac, go to System Settings → Wallpaper (macOS Ventura and later) or System Preferences → Desktop & Screen Saver on older versions. Options include:
- Static images from Apple's built-in library
- Your own photos from the Photos app or any local folder
- Dynamic Desktop wallpapers that shift tone and light based on the time of day
- Shuffle mode, which rotates images at set intervals
On macOS, each Space (virtual desktop) can have its own wallpaper independently, which matters if you use Mission Control extensively.
Changing Your Background on iPhone and Android 📱
On iPhone (iOS 16+): Go to Settings → Wallpaper → Add New Wallpaper. You can choose from Apple's built-in wallpapers, your own photos, or live/animated options. iOS also lets you pair a specific wallpaper with a Focus mode, so your background automatically changes based on whether you're working, sleeping, or in personal time.
On Android: The process varies by manufacturer, but the standard path is to long-press the home screen and tap Wallpaper or Wallpaper & Style. Samsung, Google Pixel, and OnePlus devices each have slightly different menu layouts, but the core options are similar:
- Home screen wallpaper
- Lock screen wallpaper (set separately or together)
- Live wallpapers (animated, often more battery-intensive)
Some Android skins add Material You dynamic theming (Pixel devices running Android 12+), which auto-generates a colour palette from your chosen wallpaper and applies it across your UI.
Changing Your Background in Video Calls 🎥
Virtual backgrounds work differently from system wallpapers — they require real-time image processing, and your hardware plays a direct role in how well they perform.
| Platform | Background Options | Hardware Requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Zoom | Virtual image, video, blur | Mid-range CPU or higher |
| Microsoft Teams | Blur, custom image | Integrated or dedicated GPU helps |
| Google Meet | Blur, preset images, custom upload | Works on most modern devices |
| Apple FaceTime | Portrait mode blur (iPhone/Mac only) | Face ID-capable device or M-series Mac |
On Zoom, go to Settings → Background & Effects to upload a custom image or select blur. Teams uses Settings → Devices → Background effects. Performance varies noticeably between machines — older CPUs may produce choppy edges or dropped frames when virtual backgrounds are active, especially without a dedicated GPU or hardware-accelerated video encoding.
A physical green screen improves edge detection dramatically and reduces the processing load, which is why content creators often use one even on capable machines.
Changing Browser or App Backgrounds
Some applications maintain their own background settings entirely separate from your OS:
- Google Chrome: Install a theme from the Chrome Web Store, or click the Customise Chrome button on the New Tab page to set a background image and colour scheme
- Microsoft Edge: The new tab page has a built-in background selector under its settings icon
- Outlook and Gmail: Both offer theme settings within their interface options — these affect the app environment, not your system wallpaper
These are self-contained and don't interact with your desktop or lock screen settings.
The Variables That Determine Your Experience
Several factors shape exactly what's available to you and how well it works:
- OS version — older operating systems have fewer wallpaper categories and no dynamic options
- Device tier — virtual backgrounds and live wallpapers place real demands on CPU and GPU resources
- Manufacturer skin (Android) — Samsung One UI, MIUI, and stock Android expose different menu paths and features
- Screen count and resolution — multi-monitor setups and high-DPI displays introduce additional configuration steps
- Third-party app involvement — apps like Zoom or Teams add their own layer of settings that can behave differently across operating system versions
What works seamlessly on a recent flagship or a modern desktop may be limited or unavailable on older hardware. And across platforms, the feature gap between entry-level and current-generation devices is wide enough that the same task can involve meaningfully different steps — and meaningfully different results.