How to Change the Background in Text Messages
Customizing the look of your messaging app — including the background or "wallpaper" behind your conversations — is one of those features that exists across most platforms but works completely differently depending on what device and app you're using. If you've gone looking for a background setting and couldn't find it, or found it in a place you didn't expect, that's entirely normal. Here's how it actually works.
What "Background" Means in a Messaging App
When people talk about changing the background in text messages, they usually mean one of two things:
- Chat wallpaper — a custom image or color that fills the background of a specific conversation or all conversations
- App theme — a broader color scheme change that affects the entire interface, including backgrounds
These are different settings, and not every messaging app offers both. Understanding which one you're looking for will save you a lot of digging through menus.
How It Works on iPhone (iMessage / Messages App)
Apple's built-in Messages app on iPhone does not currently support custom chat wallpapers within the app itself. The background of your iMessage conversations is determined by your system settings — specifically your display mode (Light or Dark) and, to some extent, your phone's wallpaper in a stylistic sense, but not directly.
What iPhone does offer is chat themes per contact, introduced in later iOS versions. These allow you to set a color gradient or visual theme for individual conversations — not a photo background, but a styled color wash. You access this through:
Messages → Open a conversation → Tap the contact name at the top → Tap the profile icon → Select a color or Memoji background
This is different from a full wallpaper and is limited to a curated set of options Apple provides.
How It Works on Android (Google Messages)
Google Messages, the default SMS/RCS app on many Android phones, supports per-conversation themes rather than full photo wallpapers. You can change the color theme of a chat bubble set through:
Open a conversation → Tap the three-dot menu (top right) → Chat colors
This changes the bubble accent colors, not a background image. The overall app background defaults to your system's light or dark mode setting.
Some Android manufacturers — Samsung in particular — build their own messaging apps (like Samsung Messages) with additional customization. On Samsung devices, you may find background options under conversation settings that go further than what Google Messages offers.
How It Works on WhatsApp 🎨
WhatsApp is one of the most flexible messaging apps for background customization. It allows you to set a photo, solid color, or default pattern as the wallpaper for individual chats or all chats at once.
To change it: Settings → Chats → Chat Wallpaper
From here you can:
- Choose a photo from your camera roll
- Select a solid color
- Pick from WhatsApp's built-in patterns
- Set different wallpapers for light mode and dark mode
You can also override the global wallpaper for a specific conversation by opening that chat, tapping the contact name, and looking for wallpaper settings.
How It Works on Telegram
Telegram offers some of the most granular background customization of any major messaging platform. You can set:
- Solid colors
- Gradient backgrounds
- Custom patterns (animated or static)
- Photos from your gallery
Access this through: Settings → Chat Settings → Chat Background
Telegram also lets you apply backgrounds system-wide or per chat, and the animated background options are unique to the platform.
Key Variables That Affect What You Can Do
| Factor | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| App choice | WhatsApp and Telegram offer far more customization than native SMS apps |
| Operating system | iOS and Android handle theming differently at the system level |
| Device manufacturer | Samsung, OnePlus, and others add layers on top of stock Android |
| OS version | Newer iOS and Android versions have introduced features older versions lack |
| Chat type | SMS, RCS, and encrypted chats sometimes have different setting availability |
Third-Party Messaging Apps
If background customization is important to you and your default app doesn't support it, several third-party SMS apps for Android — such as Chomp SMS or QKSMS — are built specifically around visual customization, including full background photo support, custom bubble styles, and font options.
On iPhone, third-party apps can't replace iMessage at the system level in the same way, so your options there are more limited unless you're switching to a cross-platform app like WhatsApp or Signal.
The Part That Depends on You
What's actually possible for you comes down to the combination of your device, operating system version, and which messaging app you're using — and whether you're open to switching apps if your current one doesn't offer what you want. Someone using WhatsApp on Android has almost unlimited background flexibility. Someone using native iMessage on an older iPhone has very little. And someone using Samsung Messages sits somewhere in between.
Your setup — and how much you're willing to change it — is what determines where you land on that spectrum. 📱