Can You Set a Video as iPhone Wallpaper? (iOS 26)

No, an iPhone cannot use a video file as wallpaper. iOS 26, like iOS 18, only accepts photos, so the workaround is to turn the video into a Live Photo and set that: it plays a few seconds of motion every time you wake the phone, then settles on a still frame. The motion only happens on the Lock Screen; the Home Screen always shows the still.

Below: how to convert a clip, how to set it, why it often stays still, and what to use instead if you want a screen that feels alive without draining attention.

What a video wallpaper looks like on iPhone

A Live Photo is a still image with a short clip attached, about three seconds around the moment you take it. Since iOS 17, a Live Photo set as wallpaper plays that clip once, slowed down, when the Lock Screen lights up. There is no loop, no sound and no playback on the Home Screen.

That means two things for a video wallpaper. First, only a few seconds of your clip will ever play, so choose the moment carefully. Second, the still frame where it stops is what you see most of the time, so it has to work as a wallpaper on its own. For the full history of live wallpapers on iPhone, see our guide on how to set a live wallpaper on iPhone.

How to set a video as wallpaper, step by step

1. Shortcut if you are filming now: open Camera, turn on the Live button at the top and take the picture. It is already a Live Photo, so skip to step 4.
2. For an existing video: install a converter app from the App Store that saves a video as a Live Photo. Search for video to Live Photo; intoLive is one widely used option.
3. In the converter, pick the video, trim it to the few seconds you want, choose the still frame and save it to Photos as a Live Photo. It should show a LIVE label in the corner.
4. Open Settings, tap Wallpaper, then Add New Wallpaper, and tap Photos.
5. Choose the Live Photo. Pinch and drag to frame it, keeping the moving part below the clock.
6. Check the Live Photo button, a circle of rings in the bottom left corner. It must be on, without a line through it.
7. Tap Add, then Set as Wallpaper Pair or Customize Home Screen.
8. Lock the iPhone and wake it. The clip plays once and stops.

Why the video wallpaper does not move

• The Live Photo button is greyed out. iOS checks each clip and refuses motion when there is too much of it. Fast pans, shaky footage and quick cuts fail most often. Trim to a calmer moment: water, smoke, a slow turn of the head.
• You are looking at the Home Screen. Only the Lock Screen plays the clip. That is by design and there is no setting for it.
• Low Power Mode is on. It can stop the Lock Screen animation to save energy. Turn it off in Control Center or Settings, Battery, and wake the phone again.
• The file lost its Live Photo part. Downloads from the web and photos sent through most messengers arrive as plain stills. AirDrop and iCloud keep the Live Photo; a screenshot never does.
• Your iPhone is too old. Moving Live Photo wallpapers need iOS 17 or later, which means an iPhone XS, XR or newer.

Still wallpapers with a sense of motion

If a clip that plays once and freezes feels like a let-down, a still picture with movement built into it often works better. These five show water, fog and liquid light, and they look the same on the Lock Screen and the Home Screen.

Tidal Quiet4K · PhoneArctic Current4K · PhoneMist Pines4K · PhoneThe Night Is Soft4K · PhoneObsidian Waves4K · Phone

• Tidal Quiet looks straight down at turquoise water over pale sand, with no horizon, so the clock seems to float on the surface.
• Arctic Current bends liquid silver and teal into two soft hollows, like a frame taken from a slow pour.
• Mist Pines fades old pines into fog under a small red sun, and keeps the upper half nearly empty for the time.
• The Night Is Soft is grey fog and a lone shelter by the water, a quiet scene that reads as a moment in a film.
• Obsidian Waves sets glossy black waves at the bottom of a pure black frame, a good choice for an OLED iPhone.

To make a still set change on its own, add several of them to Photo Shuffle set to On Lock; our guide to making the iPhone wallpaper change automatically shows how.

Other ways to get motion on the Lock Screen

• Built-in faces. Under Add New Wallpaper, Astronomy shifts its view of the Earth or the Moon when you unlock, and Weather shows the current conditions where you are.
• Spatial scenes. In iOS 26, the hexagon button in the wallpaper editor turns a photo into a 3D scene that moves slightly as you tilt the phone. It needs an iPhone 12 or newer and works on still pictures, not on video.
• Depth effect. A clear subject can sit in front of the clock, which gives a layered look on any still image. Our depth effect wallpaper guide explains when iOS allows it.

Get these wallpapers in Velpaper

The wallpapers in this guide are still images, each a 4K original designed by Carlos Vivero, 2160 × 3840 pixels, larger than any iPhone screen, so it stays sharp on every model. They are free in the Velpaper app for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android and on velpaper.com, with no account and no watermark, and each one leaves calm space for the clock.

1. Open Tidal Quiet in the Velpaper app or on velpaper.com.
2. Tap Download to save the original to Photos, not a screenshot of the preview.
3. In Settings, Wallpaper, Add New Wallpaper, tap Photos, choose it and tap Add.