Bring more life and personalization to your group chats, by adding backgrounds to your conversations in Messages in iOS 26 and iPadOS 26. Here's how to change yours for the better.

The clock now shows an all-white background with added clock markings around the outer edge. X/Apple Hub. Another was more blunt: “Apple has made a real mess with this 26.

If you wish to remove the background from an image on any other app, like Messages, Notes, or some third-party iPhone app, you can do so using steps 3 and 4 listed above.

However, if you have an iPhone 15, 15 Plus, 15 Pro, or 15 Pro Max, you can now add the Portrait blur effect to photos taken in regular Photo mode. Here's how to blur the background for earlier ...