How to Change the Background on PS5 From Your Phone
The PS5 home screen has come a long way since launch, and Sony has gradually opened up more customization options — including the ability to manage certain settings remotely through the PlayStation App on your phone. If you're wondering whether you can change your PS5 background from your phone, the honest answer involves a few important distinctions worth understanding before you dive in.
What "Background" Actually Means on PS5
The PS5 doesn't use wallpapers the same way a phone or PC does. Instead, the home screen displays dynamic themes tied to your pinned games, meaning the background shifts based on whichever game card you've highlighted. Sony controls most of these visuals at the system level.
That said, there are two areas where you have real control:
- Profile customization — your avatar and cover image visible to other players
- Console appearance settings — display preferences, UI brightness, and rest mode behavior
Understanding which of these you're trying to change matters a lot for figuring out what's actually possible from your phone.
What the PlayStation App Can and Can't Do 🎮
The PlayStation App (available on iOS and Android) connects to your PS5 and lets you manage a surprising number of things remotely, but background customization sits in a gray area.
What you can do from the app:
- Change your PSN profile avatar and cover image — these are visible on your profile page across PS5, PS4, and the app itself
- Manage your friends list, messages, and notifications
- Browse the PlayStation Store and push game downloads to your console
- Access Game Help and activity feeds
- Control remote play (stream and play your PS5 directly from your phone)
What you currently cannot do from the app:
- Change the dynamic background themes tied to game cards on the PS5 home screen
- Adjust display or HDR settings remotely
- Apply custom wallpapers (the PS5 doesn't support user-uploaded wallpapers as a native feature at this time)
So if your goal is to set a custom image as a PS5 background the way you'd set a lock screen wallpaper on your phone — that feature doesn't exist on PS5 yet, regardless of whether you're using the phone app or the console directly.
How to Change Your PS5 Profile Background From Your Phone
If you want to update your profile appearance — the cover photo and avatar that represent you on PSN — you can absolutely do that from the PlayStation App.
Steps to update your PS5 profile from your phone:
- Open the PlayStation App and sign in with your PSN account
- Tap your profile icon in the bottom navigation bar
- Select Edit Profile
- Tap Cover Image to upload or choose a background image for your profile page
- Tap Avatar to change your profile picture (choose from PSN avatars or, on supported accounts, upload a custom photo)
- Save your changes — they sync automatically to your PS5
These changes will be visible on your PS5 profile immediately after saving, without needing to touch the console.
How PS5 Home Screen Backgrounds Actually Work
For the home screen itself, Sony uses a system where each game card generates its own ambient background — artwork pulled directly from the game. When you scroll through your library, the background shifts dynamically.
The only way to influence this on the console itself is by:
- Pinning specific games to your home screen (the highlighted game drives the background)
- Choosing between Light Mode and Dark Mode under Settings → Appearance → Theme
Dark Mode gives the UI a darker overall tone, which some users prefer as a de facto "background" change. This setting can be adjusted on the console but not pushed remotely through the phone app.
Variables That Affect Your Options 🖥️
Not every PS5 user has the same experience with the PlayStation App, and a few factors shape what's available to you:
| Variable | How It Affects Customization |
|---|---|
| App version | Older app versions may lack newer remote features — keeping the app updated matters |
| PSN account region | Some features roll out regionally before going global |
| Console firmware version | App-to-console features require the PS5 to be on a current firmware |
| Console rest mode settings | Remote features only work if your PS5 is set to stay connected to the internet in rest mode |
| Account type | Primary vs. guest accounts on a shared console can affect profile sync behavior |
Using Remote Play as a Workaround
If you want to make any PS5 setting change — including appearance options — without physically sitting at your console, Remote Play through the PlayStation App is the most complete solution. This streams your full PS5 interface to your phone screen, giving you access to every system setting exactly as if you were at the TV.
Through Remote Play you can:
- Navigate to Settings → Appearance → Theme and switch between Light and Dark mode
- Rearrange your home screen game cards (which indirectly controls which background displays)
- Access any other system setting remotely
The tradeoff is that Remote Play requires a stable Wi-Fi or mobile data connection on both ends, and the console needs to be on or in rest mode with network access enabled. 🔧
The Part That Depends on Your Setup
How useful the PlayStation App is for your specific situation depends on what you're actually trying to achieve. Someone looking to freshen up their PSN profile image has a smooth, direct path through the app. Someone hoping to apply a custom photo as a PS5 home screen wallpaper will find that the console's design simply doesn't support that — from any device — at least under current firmware.
What Sony includes in future updates, what your specific app and firmware versions support, and whether you've configured rest mode and network access correctly all determine how much remote control you actually have over your console's appearance from your phone.