iOS 26 Spatial Scenes: Apple Immersive Wallpapers Explained

Spatial Scenes are iOS 26's new animated wallpaper format — depth-layered still images that shift perspective as you tilt your iPhone, available on iPhone 15 Pro and later as a native lock screen wallpaper type distinct from Live Photos.

What Spatial Scenes Are

A Spatial Scene is a depth-aware wallpaper that uses the LiDAR scanner and camera system on supported iPhones to create a layered parallax effect. Unlike Live Photos, which play a pre-recorded 1.5-second video clip on raise-to-wake, Spatial Scenes respond in real time to gyroscope and accelerometer input — the image shifts perspective as you move the phone in any direction.

Apple introduced Spatial Scenes with iOS 26 at WWDC 2026 — our in-depth Spatial Scenes guide covers how to capture and set them step by step. They are not a video format; there is no MOV clip. Instead, each Spatial Scene stores a depth map alongside the image data, and the iOS rendering engine uses that depth map to synthesize parallax in real time. The effect is closer to the parallax effect on older iPhones (available since iOS 7) but with genuine per-pixel depth data rather than a simple 2D offset.

Device Requirements and Availability

Spatial Scenes require iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max and later — specifically the LiDAR Scanner integrated into the Pro camera system. The standard iPhone 15 and 15 Plus do not support Spatial Scene capture or playback, though they can display Spatial Scene wallpapers Apple ships as system wallpapers (the depth data is bundled rather than device-captured).

Device	Capture Spatial Scenes	Display Spatial Scenes	Live Photo Wallpapers
iPhone 6S – 14	No	No	Yes (iOS 10+)
iPhone 15 / 15 Plus	No	System only	Yes
iPhone 15 Pro / Pro Max	Yes	Yes	Yes
iPhone 16 / 16 Plus	No	System only	Yes
iPhone 16 Pro / Pro Max	Yes	Yes	Yes

iOS 26 is required for all Spatial Scene functionality. iPhones running iOS 25 or earlier on eligible hardware cannot access the Spatial Scene wallpaper category.

How Spatial Scenes Differ From Live Photos

Live Photos and Spatial Scenes are both animated lock screen wallpapers in iOS 26, but they work entirely differently (for the broader format distinction, see live wallpaper vs Live Photo):

Property	Live Photo Wallpaper	Spatial Scene Wallpaper
File format	HEIC + MOV pair	Depth-map image (proprietary)
Animation trigger	Raise-to-wake (accelerometer)	Real-time gyroscope / tilt
Motion type	Pre-recorded video clip	Real-time parallax rendering
Duration	1.5 seconds then stops	Continuous while phone is moving
Audio	Yes (silenced on lock screen)	No
Works from any photo	Yes (via Lockimate)	Requires LiDAR depth data
iPhone 6S support	Yes	No

Live Photos animate once on raise-to-wake then freeze. Spatial Scenes respond continuously to phone movement, creating an immersive depth experience that matches your hand motion. They are complementary formats: you can have one Live Photo wallpaper and one Spatial Scene wallpaper and switch between them in Wallpaper settings.

Creating and Finding Spatial Scenes

As of iOS 26, Spatial Scenes can be sourced in 3 ways:

Apple system scenes: iOS 26 ships with approximately 12 Spatial Scene wallpapers in the Wallpaper picker under the new "Spatial" category. These are available on all iPhones running iOS 26, including non-Pro models for display purposes.

Capture from the Camera app: On iPhone 15 Pro, 16 Pro, and later, the Camera app includes a Spatial Scene capture mode. This uses the LiDAR scanner to record depth data at the moment of capture. Scenes captured this way save to a new "Spatial Scenes" album in the Photos app.

Third-party apps: Third-party developers can access the Spatial Scene APIs introduced in iOS 26 SDK to generate depth-aware images programmatically. Lockimate is evaluating Spatial Scene support as a future feature alongside its existing Live Photo generation.

Spatial Scenes vs Live Photos for Lock Screen Wallpapers

For most iPhone users, Live Photos remain the more accessible animated wallpaper option in iOS 26: they work on every iPhone since iPhone 6S, can be created from any existing photo using Lockimate, and the animation behavior (plays on raise-to-wake) is familiar and battery-efficient.

Spatial Scenes are a compelling complement on Pro devices — the real-time parallax creates a more immersive depth effect — but they require Pro hardware and either a LiDAR capture or Apple system content. They cannot be created from an arbitrary photo library image the way Live Photos can. For everything new in the latest release, see the iOS 26 wallpaper guide and browse the full Lockimate glossary.

FAQ

What iPhone models support iOS 26 Spatial Scenes?

Capturing Spatial Scenes requires iPhone 15 Pro, 15 Pro Max, 16 Pro, or 16 Pro Max — any iPhone with a LiDAR Scanner. Displaying Apple's built-in Spatial Scene wallpapers works on any iPhone running iOS 26. The standard iPhone 15, 15 Plus, 16, and 16 Plus can display system Spatial Scenes but cannot capture new ones.

Do Spatial Scenes drain battery faster than Live Photos?

Spatial Scenes use real-time GPU rendering driven by continuous gyroscope input, while Live Photos play a 1.5-second pre-rendered video clip on raise-to-wake and then stop. In Apple's WWDC 2026 engineering session, the Spatial Scene rendering was described as "comparable to Live Photo wallpaper battery impact" because the gyroscope is already active during normal phone use. Expect similar battery behavior in practice.

Can I set a Spatial Scene and a Live Photo as wallpapers at the same time?

No — iOS 26 allows one wallpaper per lock screen context, and each wallpaper is either a Live Photo, Spatial Scene, Still, or another supported type. You can create multiple lock screens in Wallpaper settings (iOS 16+) and switch between them via Focus modes, so you can have a Live Photo wallpaper on one lock screen and a Spatial Scene on another.

Will Lockimate support Spatial Scenes?

Lockimate currently generates native Live Photos (HEIC + MOV) from still images — the 4 animation vibes (Warm, Playful, Cinematic, Lively) and 4 art styles (Realistic, Anime, 3D Cartoon, Painterly) all output standard Live Photos compatible with iPhone 6S and later. Spatial Scene support for Pro devices is on the product roadmap for a future update.