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How to set a different wallpaper on each iPhone Duo screen

Updated: September 24, 2026

Written before general availability. The display figures on this page come from Apple's published iPhone Duo technical specifications. iPhone Duo goes on sale 23 October 2026; the on-device steps below follow how iOS has worked on existing iPhones, and we will re-check every step against a shipping device and update this page.

A folding iPhone gives you two canvases. You can run one image across both, or treat them as a pair — related but composed separately. Here is how to set each screen, and what to watch for.

Before you start

Download both files of the pair you want to your Photos library. Each wallpaper on this site has two downloads: one at 1398 × 2034 for the cover screen and one at 1878 × 2670 for the inner screen. Tap and hold each image, then choose Save to Photos.

Set the inner screen

  1. Unfold the phone so you are looking at the 7.6‑inch display.
  2. Open Settings → Wallpaper → Add New Wallpaper.
  3. Choose Photos and pick the file whose name ends in -inner.
  4. Pinch to check the framing. If you downloaded the correct file you should not need to zoom at all — it is already the exact pixel size of the screen.
  5. Tap Add, then choose whether to use it for both the Lock Screen and the Home Screen.

Set the cover screen

  1. Fold the phone closed so you are looking at the 5.4‑inch display.
  2. Go to Settings → Wallpaper → Add New Wallpaper again — from the cover screen this time.
  3. Choose Photos and pick the file ending in -cover.
  4. Tap Add.

The order matters less than the screen you are looking at when you start. Set each wallpaper while the phone is in the state that screen belongs to.

Why not just use one image for both?

You can, and for a plain gradient it is fine. The reason we publish pairs is that the two screens are not the same shape: the cover screen's aspect ratio is 1:1.455 and the inner screen's is 1:1.422. Reuse one file and iOS crops roughly 2% to make it fit — which moves whatever you cared about in the image. The exact numbers are here.

Matching, not duplicating

The good version of a two-screen wallpaper is not the same picture twice. It is the same palette and the same idea, composed for each screen's proportions: a glow that stays in the same visual place, a horizon that lands at the same height, a pattern whose features are the same physical size on both panels. Unfold the phone and nothing jumps.

All sixteen of our free wallpaper pairs are built this way.

Keeping widgets consistent too

If you add widgets on top, give them the same treatment: one palette across both screens. Duo Themes lets you save a widget design once and place it on either screen, so the colours stay identical rather than approximately similar.

Download free on the App Store

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