Make your Mac invincible
For as long as computers had a graphical interface, what to do with the vast space behind all the icons, which we call desktop, has been a nagging question. Soon enough, desktop wallpapers appeared — the most famous of which was Bliss, a landscape photo taken in Sonoma County, California. But is there anything more boring than that today, 20 years later?
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Luckily, now we can set any desktop wallpaper we like. And most of us do, since they reflect our mood and sense of style. However, the technology has been evolving too — especially with the release of dynamic desktop wallpapers by Apple in macOS Mojave.
Best dynamic wallpapers for free
Get 24 Hour Wallpaper app via Setapp — a huge library of HD wallpapers, from sunrises to night city lights.
Let’s review what these dynamic backgrounds are, how time wallpapers have changed our perception of what’s possible, and how you can create one yourself easily right now.
What Are Dynamic Wallpapers?
Dynamic wallpapers introduced by Apple in 2018 set a new precedent in what everyone thought was a feature that couldn’t be improved upon. The idea behind dynamic backgrounds is that the point of the view of the image stays the same while its light source changes throughout the day from sunrise to sunset and throughout the night.
While most people think that time wallpapers are basically real-time videos, they are in fact a collection of images taken from the same spot over a 24-hour period with an accompanying text file that describes the position of the Sun in each shot. This also means you can create your own dynamic desktop wallpapers if you so wish.
How to create dynamic wallpapers for Mac
Free Mac Desktop Wallpaper
Unsurprisingly, the hardest part of creating dynamic wallpapers is actually getting outside and taking photos from the same spot for 24 hours. Once you’ve done that, you can use a straightforward console application to describe them properly in a text file.
Notice that dynamic wallpapers aren’t simple images, but rather .heic files. As you compress all your images into a correct .heic output, setting up your own dynamic desktop wallpaper is easy:
- First switch your desktop to one of the dynamic wallpapers already in macOS. You can find them in System Preferences ➙ Desktop & Screen Saver ➙ Dynamic Desktop.
- Locate your newly created time wallpaper, right-click on it, and select Set Desktop Picture
That’s it. The moving aspect of the dynamic desktop wallpaper should be automatically activated.
Where to get more dynamic wallpapers
If you’re into dynamic desktop wallpapers, macOS Big Sur currently offers seven of them, which is a big improvement over two that were available in Mojave, but still not much.
Creating your own dynamic backgrounds sounds exciting, but even if you go down that path, it’s hard to imagine you would make more than a few — after all, it’s a crazy time commitment!
So, now the question is, where do you get new dynamic wallpapers for Mac? You have a few options.
First, check out Dynamic Wallpaper Club. It’s a community that has been organized right after macOS Mojave came out to source dynamic desktop wallpapers from creators all over the world. The platform features dozens of cool time wallpapers and even has its own tool to make dynamic wallpaper creation easier. The downside is that since it’s free, there are not that many high-quality dynamic wallpapers available.
24 Hour Wallpaper is currently the leading dynamic wallpaper solution available on Mac. This utility lives quietly in your menu bar panel, from where it lets you automatically manage which wallpaper is displayed out of its gigantic HD library and match your timezone to the wallpaper image. You can even set it to see multiple scenes throughout the day.
Using 24 Hour Wallpaper will never cease to amaze you, with its diversity of landscape and stunning photography. However, what do you do if you find out that dynamic wallpapers are not really your cup of tea and you feel better having the same desktop throughout the day. Where do you go to source regular wallpapers of the highest quality?
Wallpaper Wizard has got you covered. Just like 24 Hour Wallpaper, this app lives primarily in your menu bar and boasts a massive library of more than 25,000 images in 4K resolution, ready to show off your beautiful Retina display. You can browse through the collection and pick your favorite — whether it’s nature, people, sports, etc. — or even save lots of images you like to a roll that would switch your desktop as often as you want.
To set up a roll in Wallpaper Wizard:
- Go through the collection and Add to Roll all the images you like
- Navigate to the Roll tab at the top
- Click the cog to configure the settings up to your preferences, picking the time interval (from 15 minutes to one week) and specifying behavior on multiple monitors. You can also pause the roll here at any time to continue with a static wallpaper.
As you can see, there are lots of ways for you to enjoy the (still) new dynamic wallpaper feature on Mac. You can choose one yourself right now from a limited set prepared by Apple, you can get inspired by some images created by the enthusiastic community worldwide, and you can even create your own from scratch! But to truly differentiate yourself without breaking a sweat, just use the 24 Hour Wallpaper app with dozens of outstanding time wallpapers. And if you’d ever want to return to the static desktop, Wallpaper Wizard is there to help you out with its 4K library of 25,000 shots.
Best of all, 24 Hour Wallpaper and Wallpaper Wizard are absolutely free for you to try for seven days through Setapp, a platform with more than 200 useful apps that make your time on Mac much more enjoyable and productive, from improving your sound with Boom 3D to keeping your traffic secure with ClearVPN. Try every app available on Setapp today and see what fits your needs at no cost!
Editor’s note: We’ve updated this guide with a new pick for enjoying rad wallpapers that comes with widgets.
Ever since the macOS became the multimedia powerhouse it is today, visuals have been a strong suit of the operating system. With the release of macOS X Mojave, Apple brought out the glorious Dynamic Wallpapers, which shifted the landscape based on the time of the day. Thanks to the unprecedented popularity same glorious dynamic wallpapers are compatible with macOS Big Sur update too. As stunning as the native wallpapers on macOS with every new version can be, you might find seeing the same aesthetic elements, as stunning as it may be, a bit boring.
By default, you are limited to the number of wallpapers available for the system to just a handful, which would make you want to find a few surreal ones of our own. But where can you find wallpapers and desktop backgrounds for your Mac computer that are good enough to rival the pieces of visual art that Apple crafts with the help of world-renowned photographers?
We bring you a comprehensive collection of some of the best wallpaper apps for macOS, personally tried and tested for the best results.
TL;DR: top wallpaper apps for Mac right now:
- For HD Wallpapers:Wallpaper Wizard 2
- For Dynamic Desktops:24 Hour Wallpaper
- For Rad Wallpapers with Widgets:Hologram Desktop
- For 3D Wallpapers:Earth 3D
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For HD wallpapers: Wallpaper Wizard 2
Developed with the minimalist design in mind, the Wallpaper Wizard 2 app comes from MacPaw, which is already an established development studio. We enjoyed the lightweight wallpaper app, which comes with the finesse you would expect from native macOS apps, and a gargantuan collection of visually pleasing desktop backgrounds under the hood.
When you download and install the application, you’ll see a beautiful and elegant main interface. It is not cluttered with extra icons, here you’ll be approached with a simple “App Store” style catalog of numerous thumbnails of background collections.
Bringing out the best of the Retina HD display that makes the MacBook and the iMac such an eye-candy, Wallpaper Wizard 2 gives you an ever-updating catalog of all sorts of wallpapers, ranging across the spectrum of nature, space, architecture, colors, seasons, and everything in between.
Built with the philosophy to keep things simple, we enjoyed the straightforward setup of Wallpaper Wizard 2 and barely takes up any system resources. You start off with a 7-day trial to dip your toes in, and from there, the browsing experience is rich and comprehensive. We checked out the Explore tab for some of the latest collections to pick from right way, with categories listed right below for you to look into.
The Roll section is where you add wallpapers you want to add as a carousel to the desktop. With the press of a button, you can go to the next one on the list, along with a shuffle button to mix things up. Finally, there’s an entirely separate section for the Favorites you can add from the thousands of wallpapers by hitting the star icon right next to them.
If you are looking for a specific genre of wallpapers but don’t want to sift through the thousands of high-quality offerings in the Wallpaper Wizard 2 app, there’s a handy Search bar built into it. Taking inspiration from iOS with the rounder corners and masonry grid design, you will always have a window into a fantastic collection of macOS HD wallpapers, which are updated by the thousands each month.
Price: $9.95 via official website (Free Trial for 7 Days). It’s also available via Setapp, a $9.99 monthly subscription service.
For dynamic desktops: 24 Hour Wallpaper
The best wallpapers for Mac are not in short supply, we could not find a whole lot of wallpaper apps for macOS that offer you dynamic wallpapers Apple ships the operating system with. We found the ability to see the day pass by with the wallpaper reflecting it, quite pleasant, which is exactly what Jetson Creative strives to offer with the 24 Hour Wallpaper app.
Free Desktop Wallpaper For Mac
Available as both, an app and a standalone bundle of wallpapers too, you will find the pricing model of 24 Hour Wallpaper as the only confusing part about it. We found everything else about the wallpaper app to be straightforward, with the wallpapers designed with the same craftsmanship that you come to expect only from the award-winning photographers that Apple hires for its official dynamic wallpapers.
Built in 5K HD resolution to keep your eyes fixated on the desktop for hours, the 24 Hour Wallpaper app features more than 80 different scenic spectacles to choose from. Apart from the three that are offered for free to give you a little taste of the goodness (Big Sur, Miami, and Earth from ISS), the app packs a whole lot more in 5120×2880 resolution.
Price: $9.99 or $1.29 per wallpaper. It’s also available via Setapp, a $9.99 monthly subscription service.
For rad wallpapers with widgets: Hologram Desktop
Hologram Desktop is a cool app we recently discovered in the Mac App Store.The app transforms your Mac desktop with 5 million scenic wallpapers from Unsplash, Pixabay, and Pexels. You get five-preloaded themes that you can instantly apply and use, then would have to download more wallpapers from built-in three top image providers above.
This software is not just about wallpapers, but more about a combination of wallpapers and widgets. Why? It allows you to blend your own creativity into it by neatly arranging the shortcuts and icons on wallpapers you fetched. The app comes over 50 widgets now, that lets you add the weather, date and time, moon phase, system information, inspirational quotes, jokes, and lots of other stuff to appear from your homescreen. You can even customize Widgets with tons of settings directly from the app.
Hologram Desktop supports Macs running macOS 10.15 Catalina or higher. It comes in Free and Pro versions. The Free version comes with 10 widgets and is limited to 5 wallpaper downloads per month, while Pro version comes with unlimited wallpaper downloads, all available widgets, 25 beautiful pre-built pro themes, and lets you save your wallpapers to your own folders. You can buy the app for $9.99 from the Mac App Store.
For 3D wallpapers: Earth 3D
Earth 3D is a cool app we recently discovered in the Mac App Store. It is a combination of 3D Screensaver and Live Wallpaper, you can launch app in a full screen and use as 3D screen saver or launch in a small window and enable Live Wallpaper mode and app periodically will generate a new wallpaper.
Earth 3D gives you live wallpapers and screensavers of the earth, with details of buildings, airplanes, and more. It shows you over 2,600 geographic objects, over 500 wonders of the world, a real=life night sky, a day/night cycle with city lights, and a whole lot more. The graphics are high-quality 3D, with HD textures for 1080p and up, and it supports Apple’s Retina displays. There’s also an interactive mode where you can click and drag to explore the planet.
Price: You can buy Earth 3D on the Mac App Store for US$2.99.
Some more wallpaper apps worth mentioning
There were a lot of other great wallpaper apps that we considered when writing this review, but none of them quite measured up to our top picks. Still, they definitely have unique features that deserve a mention.
Dynaper – Dynamic Wallpapers
Built for photography enthusiasts, the wallpaper app for Mac allows you to easily create dynamic wallpapers, including elements such as time and solar shifting in the background, and complete compatibility with macOS Mojave, Catalina, and the latest Big Sur version too.
The helper tools built into the Dynaper makes it easier to set the timeframe for the images, or just go with the Light/Dark wallpaper modes that automatically adapt to the appearance change. We were offered the compatibility for Retina HD display MacBook and iMac the wide-gamut colors, with better hues even for darker images, matching the quality of visual experience that macOS native wallpapers provide.
Live Desktop
From the cool blue vibes of rippling water, to the gentle blows of the sandy beach, we were delighted by the entire catalog of awe-inspiring live desktop backgrounds for you to try out on the Live Wallpaper app.
Speaking of the interface, the general experience is simplified and selecting the best ones from the lot is made easy with the Featured section. Apart from live wallpapers, the app also comes with its own collection of built-in Live Audio, which allows you to enjoy pleasant tunes while you feast your eyes, and can be easily turned off at any time.
Unsplash Wallpapers
Fact of the matter is that there is not shortage of top-quality wallpaper service providers out there, but consolidating all of them can be difficult. Unsplash is one of the leading websites when it comes to high-quality wallpapers in the millions, and Unsplash is the app which brings to the best of it to your macOS computer.
The tiny and lightweight app is easy to get around, and allows you an automatic wallpaper times that can be set to minutes, hours, days, and weeks. The different channels allow you to shuffle through different sections such as new, featured, and others, along with auto-adjustment feature to set the color schemes in relation with the macOS theme you have installed.
Living Wallpaper HD
Another instance where the Live Wallpaper feature from the Apple iOS has been successfully adapted into the macOS platform, Living Wallpaper HD sets the standard for beautifully crafted scenes like no other. Covering everything from the hustle and bustle of the cityscapes, to the scenic marvel of galaxies far away, Live Wallpaper HD comes with 20+ variants for you to choose from.
There is a weather and clock widget subtly integrated into the live wallpaper by itself, so the aesthetic beauty doubles up as a utility feature too. Apart from the ones provided with the app, you can also choose your very own wallpapers and customize them with the app, along with add-on features such as hot corners to activate the screensaver, and Informative Dock for a quick glance into the important stats.
Wallpaper FAQs
Q: How to set up a Dynamic Wallpaper on macOS Big Sur
The latest version of macOS, similar to the older ones, comes with a couple of Dynamic Wallpapers built into it, and here’s how you can enable them:
- On the home screen, click the Apple icon on the top-left corner of the taskbar.
- Click on the Desktop button on the window.
- Select System Preferences and head to Desktop & Screen Saver from the menu.
- From the sidebar, you can choose to view the pictures saved as Desktop Pictures, Colors, or Photos saved on your computer.
- Under the Dynamic Desktop option, you will find the available options, so select the one you prefer and it will automatically be set as the background.
Q: Where to get more dynamic wallpapers
While there is an abundance of stunning wallpapers you can enjoy on the 5K Retina HD display of the iMac and MacBook, the number of Dynamic Wallpapers that Apple makes is fairly limited. Built for the very purpose of fulfilling the need to add more dynamic wallpapers to macOS, Dynamic Wallpaper Club is built with the finesse and style you have come to expect from Apple itself.
The crowdsourced website allows you to not only craft dynamic wallpapers of your own, but browse through a handsome catalog of wallpapers created by other users. The best part is, all of it comes to you free of cost, with the high-quality ones marked with the “5K” sticker for you to download right away.
Keep your Mac’s screen fresh everyday
Rather than limiting the potential of macOS with just a list of handpicked wallpapers, we want to give you the creative freedom to find, and even make your very own macOS desktop backgrounds. Whether you’re looking to capture the best of nature in a stunning way, set a dynamic wallpaper that transitions along with the day, or want to add a splash of animation to the desktop, we’ve got a wonderful list of best Mac wallpaper apps for you to browse through.