Discover WhatsApp’s new ‘chat themes’ feature: How to set it up?

WhatsApp has launched an exciting update that allows Android and iOS users to customise their chat experience with new themes and wallpapers. With this WhatsApp update, users can now choose from 22 pre-set themes and 30 new wallpapers to make their chats more vibrant and fun.

Here’s everything you need to know about this WhatsApp update:

The new feature lets you apply themes to all your chats or personalise individual conversations with unique backgrounds and chat bubbles.

You can choose from a variety of colourful backgrounds, and even change the colour of your outgoing messages. The best part? These customisations are private and will only be visible to you. You can even apply them to WhatsApp Channels!

WhatsApp also gives you the option to adjust the brightness of the background and allows you to upload your own wallpaper from your gallery or camera roll if you’re not a fan of the pre-set options.

Here are some key features of this WhatsApp update:

Chat Themes: Personalise your chat bubbles and backgrounds with vibrant colours and themes.
New Wallpapers: Choose from 30 new wallpapers or upload your own.
Customisation: Apply the same theme to all chats or pick different ones for individual conversations. The themes remain private to you.

How to change chat themes:

To apply the theme to all your chats, go to Settings > Chats > Default chat theme.
For individual chats, tap the chat name (iOS) or the 3-dot menu (Android) > Chat theme.

This WhatsApp update is being rolled out globally and will be available to all users in the coming weeks.

Earlier, by the end of January, some long-awaited beta features were released to everyone, and a few fresh changes were introduced.

Here’s a quick roundup of the WhatsApp features added in January 2025.