You can make your iPhone automatically change wallpapers based on time by using the Shortcuts app. Just pick two images—one for day, one for night—and save them in separate albums. Then, create two personal automations: one that runs at sunrise or a set time in the morning to apply the day wallpaper and turn on Light Mode, and another at sunset or night to switch to the night wallpaper and enable Dark Mode.
Once set up, your iPhone will change wallpapers on its own, giving you a smart, time-based look without doing anything manually.
Let’s take a closer look at the process.
Set Up Day & Night Wallpaper on an iPhone
1. Prepare your Wallpapers
First and foremost, select two wallpapers, one for the daytime and one for the nighttime. You can use your own stunning shots from the camera roll or download high-quality wallpapers for free from sites like Pinterest. Once you’ve chosen the images, save them to the Photos app so they’re ready for the automations.
- Open the Photos app and find the daytime wallpaper.
- Tap on the Share icon and choose Add to Album.
- Tap “+” in the top-right corner to create a new album.
- Name the album “Day Wallpaper” or something you prefer.
- Now, repeat the same steps to save the night wallpaper into a separate album.
2. Create a Day Automation
Time needed: 4 minutes
Once you’ve got the two wallpaper albums, it’s time to create automations. Here’s how to do it:
- Open the Shortcuts app and tap Automation from the bottom.
- On the screen that appears, tap New Automation.
- Under Personal Automation, tap Time of Day.
- Next, choose when you want the automation to happen. You can select the Sunrise option to link the automation to your local sunrise time or set a specific time manually. I’ve selected 7 AM.
- Under the Repeat section, select Daily.
- Choose your automation to Run Immediately without prompting you.
- Once done, tap Next from the top-right corner.
- Now, we’ll add actions to the automation.
- Select New Blank Automation and search for Find Photos.
- Tap the Add Filter option and choose your Daytime Wallpaper album.
- Once we’ve got the image, we’ll add an action to set it as our wallpaper.
- From the search bar at the bottom, find Wallpaper and choose the Set Wallpaper Photo option.
- Tap on the little arrow icon and toggle off Show Preview so the process happens in the background without showing you the preview first.
- If you want both your Home and Lock Screen wallpapers to change, leave this setting as it is. Otherwise, tap Lock and Home Screen and choose your preferred wallpaper location.
- Lastly, we’ll add another action to make sure Dark mode is turned off during the day.
- From the search bar at the bottom, find Set Appearance and choose the Light option.
- Finally, tap Next in the top-right corner.
Now, at 7 AM (or your selected time), your iPhone will automatically switch to the day wallpaper with light mode turned on.
3. Create a Night Automation
We also want the wallpaper to change at night. So, we’ll set up another personal automation—this time for Night.
Just follow the same steps as we did for the day automation. Simply choose Sunset as your trigger, or set a specific time (like I’ve selected 9:00 PM) at which you wish to change the background. The rest of the actions stay the same: find your wallpaper (this time, choose the night wallpaper album) and set the appearance to Dark mode.
And that’s it! You’ve now set a dynamic day and night wallpaper on your iPhone.
Unlock Extra Flair for your iPhone
Why just stop at day and night? You can also choose to change your iPhone wallpaper to change at early morning, sunset, or another specific time that fits your routine. You can also try weather-based automations and set different wallpapers for sunny, cloudy, and rainy days. That’s not all. You can also choose to switch backgrounds based on your location, like whether you’re at home or work. For a more tailored and personalized experience, you can link shortcuts to Focus modes and change your iPhone backgrounds based on your mood, activity, and more.
With just a few taps, you can make your iPhone look as dynamic as your lifestyle.
Want to explore some beautiful wallpapers? Check out these 10 best wallpapers for iPhone in 2025.