Dark Mode does offer a variety to your iPhone wallpapers by switching it dynamically from light to dark at a particular set time throughout the day. However, ever wished to change wallpapers throughout the day, rather than just switching the same one from light to dark. Well, iOS offers a nifty way to change your iPhone wallpaper automatically whenever you want to with the help of the Shortcuts app.
You’ll never get bored of looking at the same wallpaper again and won’t have to go to the effort of switching it manually. The following steps will show you how to use the Shortcuts app to automate changing the wallpaper on your iPhone.
Change iPhone wallpaper automatically using Shortcuts
The process does involve quite a lot of steps, but it’s guaranteed to be worthy. So let’s check out the process:
- Add your favorite wallpapers to a Photos Album
- Create Shortcuts to change wallpapers automatically
- Automate your Shortcuts to change your wallpapers daily
Add favorite wallpapers to Photos Album
The first step involves saving your favorite wallpapers to a Photos album. To do this:
- Open Photos.
- Tap Library at the bottom.
- Then hit Select at the top of the screen and pick all the photos you want to add to your Wallpapers folder.
- Tap the Share icon and select Add to Album.
- Select New Album, type in a name for it, and hit Save.
Your selected photos will now be in the newly created folder. The next step is to create a Shortcut that will change your wallpaper.
Create Shortcuts to change iPhone wallpapers automatically
The next step involves creating a shortcut for changing wallpapers automatically. This is done in the Shortcuts app:
- Open Shortcuts app.
- Tap + icon at the top-right.
- Search for Find Photo and tap the option when it appears.
- Tap Add Filter.
- Then, tap Recents next to Album is.
- Now select the Wallpapers album you created earlier above.
- Tap on Sort By and select Random to make your device randomize the wallpapers.
- Toggle ON Limit and set Get Item to 1 so that only one image is displayed at a time.
- Tap on the + icon, search for Set Wallpaper and select the option when it appears.
Choose whether you want to change the wallpapers for the Home screen, Lock screen, or both. - Tap Show More and toggle OFF Show Preview.
- Tap Next and then give your Shortcut a name.
- FInally, you’ll be able to see your created shortcut in the Shortcuts app.
Automate your Shortcuts to change your wallpapers daily
The final step involves automating your Shortcut so that it can switch the wallpaper depending on when you want it to without any. Here’s what to do:
- In the Shortcuts app, tap Automation at the bottom.
- Select Create Personal Automation.
- Here you will see a range of options of when you can make the automation run. For this tutorial, to automatically change your wallpaper at a specific time, tap Time of Day.
- Now you can select Sunrise, Sunset, or a custom time of day. We have picked Sunrise.
- Set it to repeat Daily so that your wallpaper changes every day with the sun.
- Then, click Next.
- Tap Add Action.
- Search for Run Shortcut and select the option when it appears.
- Next to Run, tap Shortcut and select the Wallpaper shortcut you created above.
- Tap Next and then toggle OFF the option for Ask Before Running.
- FInally, tap Done.
Now, your iPhone or iPad will automatically change the wallpaper at the specified time each day by running the automated shortcut. You will also get a notification about it each time the Shortcut runs.
To turn off these notifications, go to Settings → Screen Time → See All Activity. Scroll down to Notifications. Tap Show More and then select Shortcuts. Then toggle off Allow Notifications.
We think this built-in method is easier, efficient, and an excellent option. What do you think? Have you tried it yet? Let us know in the comments and if you run into problems, ask away, and we’ll be sure to get back to you. You might also like to read about how to share Shortcuts.
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Works great. Thanks!