Your iPhone will soon get a cool new feature when iOS 18 is released later this year: dynamic wallpapers. These will subtly change at various times throughout the day, giving you a phone wallpaper that automatically adjusts as the hours pass.
The feature has been spotted in the latest iOS 18 developer beta, which was released yesterday. If you've signed up for the developer beta, you can get the update by opening the Settings app on your iPhone and going to General > Software Update and selecting the Update now button.
In previous iOS 18 betas, Apple had released several new wallpapers, as it does every year, including four named Yellow, Pink, Blue, and Purple. These were static images, however: while each had a light and dark option, they didn't change unless you specifically adjusted your wallpaper choice.
iOS 18's default wallpaper now has a dynamic option that changes based on the time of day ig pic.twitter.com/ejCtVVG4lQJuly 8, 2024
Now, there's a fifth option called Dynamic (as you can see above). With it, iOS 18 takes care of changing your wallpaper for you. Instead of just having light and dark editions, each wallpaper has numerous different versions that cycle through throughout the day.
It's not yet clear what the conditions are for each setting (for example, how many hours pass between each change), but it's a nice feature to have on your iPhone.
Finally coming to iOS
The macOS operating system for Apple's Mac computers has featured dynamic wallpapers for years, so it's somewhat strange that it's taken iOS so long to catch up.
The reason for the delay could have something to do with Apple’s increased customization options in iOS 18. For example, there’s a new setting that can automatically change certain app icons from light to dark when you enable dark mode. Perhaps Apple wanted to wait for this feature to be ready before combining it with dynamic wallpapers, since the two seem to go hand-in-hand.
For now, iOS 18 is only available as a developer beta. However, the public beta is expected to launch sometime in July, with the full version to follow in a few months. With plenty of exciting new features on the way, it could be one of the biggest revamps in iOS history.
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