iOS 18/iOS 26: How to Unblur Home Screen Wallpaper on iPhone

iOS 18 packs a lot of new features, including a host of customizations for the Lock Screen.

You can now shuffle wallpapers, enable full-screen album art on the iPhone Lock Screen, make picture fit wallpaper, and more. In addition, you can apply a solid color background or gradient wallpapers to the Home Screen.

Why Is My Home Screen Wallpaper Blurry?

If you’re on iOS 18 or iOS 26, you may have noticed that your iPhone Home Screen wallpaper looks blurry. This isn’t a bug but a feature, first introduced in iOS 16, that applies a blur effect to your Home Screen background.

The blur effect is designed to improve readability and make app icons stand out.

Users who prefer a clean Home Screen with a subtle background will likely enjoy this feature. In a way, the blurry Home Screen in iOS 18 and iOS 26 also resembles the App Library.

It’s worth noting that blur is automatically applied to the Home Screen when you add a new Lock Screen. However, the blur setting is preserved if you only change the Home Screen wallpaper in iOS 18 or later.

The blur effect also applies to multiple wallpapers that you may set to rotate either automatically, on tap, or on lock.

How Do I Fix a Blurry iPhone Home Screen?

If you prefer minimalist wallpapers with a soft and neutral color scheme, you might want to remove blur from iPhone wallpaper. This is especially true since Apple doesn’t allow you to adjust the intensity of the blur. (You can, however, use Blear, a free app, to set your preferred blur level.)

Fortunately, iOS 18 and iOS 26 don’t force the blurred Home Screen on you and provide a setting to turn the blur on or off. That said, new or non-tech-savvy users might find it tricky to locate this option. That’s because the option to unblur the Home Screen on iOS 18 and iOS 26 is buried in the settings.

Here’s how you can remove the blurred background on your iPhone running iOS 18 or iOS 26.

How to Remove Blur from Home Screen in iOS 18 & iOS 26

1. Go to Settings > Wallpaper.
2. Tap Customise under the Home Screen pane.
3. Tap the Blur icon at the far right to remove blur from your current Home Screen. The change will be visible in the preview.
4. Tap Done to apply.

That’s it! The blur effect will now be removed from your current Home Screen wallpaper.

From Home Screen (On iOS 26)

You can edit and remove blur from wallpaper directly from the Home Screen in iOS 26. Here’s how:

1. Press and hold (long-press) an empty area on your Home Screen.
2. Tap Edit in the top-left corner. 
3. Select the Edit Wallpaper option.
4. Tap the Blur option in the bottom-right corner to turn blur off.
5. Tap Done to save.

Note: Since blur is applied to the Home Screen by default, you’ll need to disable blur each time you create a new Lock Screen.

How to Unblur Home Screen from iOS 18 or iOS 26 Lock Screen

Follow these steps to turn off the blur directly when applying a new Lock Screen or changing the wallpaper from the iOS Share Sheet:

1. Touch and hold (long-press) an empty area on the Lock Screen while your iPhone is unlocked.
2. Tap the + button to add a new Lock Screen and choose the desired wallpaper. You can also use Photo Shuffle to set multiple wallpapers.
3. Tap Add in the top-right corner.
4. Select Customise Home Screen instead of Set as Wallpaper Pair.
5. Tap the Blur button on the far right to disable the blur effect. The blur icon will change from white to grey.
6. Tap Done to apply the changes.

Voila! Your Home Screen background will now appear normally without any blur.

RELATED: How to Make App Icons Clear or Tinted on iOS 26