iPhone guide

iPhone call background: set a Contact Poster with any wallpaper

Updated 24 October 2026 · 6 min read · Checked against Apple's iPhone User Guide for iOS 27

The full-screen picture behind an iPhone call is a Contact Poster: the caller's own picture and name, which they share with you. To change the call background other people see, set your poster in Contacts › My Card › Edit, tap your contact photo and choose a style, then tap Customize. Any picture in your Photos library can be the background, including a wallpaper cut to your iPhone's exact screen size.

• My CardYour poster lives on your own card in the Contacts app
• Photo or MemojiWhat a poster can show, with your name in the font colour you pick
• iOS 17+Contact Posters arrived with iOS 17 in 2023
• You chooseShare with Contacts Only, or be asked each time

What the call background is

Apple added Contact Posters to the Phone app in iOS 17. Apple describes them as a way to customize how you appear, bringing a new look to incoming calls: a photo or Memoji that fills the screen, with eye-catching type for your name in a font colour you pick. Apple also made posters available to third-party calling apps.

So there are two different "call backgrounds" on an iPhone:

• The poster other people see when you call them. That is yours: you design it on your own contact card and share it.
• The poster you see when someone calls you. That is theirs. If they haven't made or shared one, you see the photo you saved for that contact instead, if any.

Set your own Contact Poster

You make your poster on your own contact card, called My Card, which iPhone creates from your Apple Account:

1. Open My Card

   Go to the Contacts app, tap My Card at the top, then tap Edit.

2. Choose a style

   Tap your contact photo, then choose a style for your contact photo and poster.

3. Customize it

   Tap Customize to edit your poster: the picture, the typeface and the colour of your name.

4. Confirm

   When you're finished, confirm your changes at the top of the card. The poster now appears when you call or message people you share it with.

If you don't see My Card, Apple's guide says to add a new contact with your details, then touch and hold it in the contact list and tap Make this My Card. Menu names can differ slightly between iOS versions; the steps above follow Apple's iPhone User Guide for iOS 27.

Use a wallpaper as your poster

A poster fills the whole screen in portrait, which is exactly the shape of an iPhone wallpaper. Using a file made for your screen means the picture needs little or no cropping:

• Download your model's size. Every iPhone wallpaper here comes cut to the resolution of each model. Not sure which you have? See which iPhone you have and the iPhone wallpaper size chart.
• Save it to Photos. The poster editor picks pictures from your library. A file downloaded in Safari lands in the Files app first; our guide to setting a wallpaper on iPhone shows how to move it to Photos.
• Leave room for your name. Your name is drawn over the picture, so choose a wallpaper whose busy part is in the middle or lower half, with sky, mist or a soft gradient behind the name.
• Pick a font colour that stands out. Light names read best on dark pictures such as our black wallpapers; on a pale picture, choose a dark colour for the name in the editor.

The same picture can be your Lock Screen too, so your phone and your calls match.

Choose who sees it

Your poster is shared through Name & Photo Sharing. Open Contacts › My Card, tap Edit, tap your contact photo, then turn on Name & Photo Sharing (you may need to scroll down). Choose Contacts Only to share your name, photo and poster automatically with people in your contacts, or Always Ask to be asked before they are shared with anyone.

Pictures for other people's calls

When someone calls you, their poster appears only if they made one and shared it. You can still give any contact a picture of your choice: open the Contacts app, tap the contact, tap Edit and assign a photo, which iPhone then uses for that contact. To answer, tap the answer button, or drag the slider if your iPhone is locked.