Haunted Wallpaper
Something in their wallpaper is getting closer. Every. Single. Day.
Open in Safari on your iPhone. Download the file, open it from Safari Downloads or Files, then follow the prompts to add it in Shortcuts.
What happens
Every morning their wallpaper gets swapped for a copy of their own photo with a gaunt, pale-faced figure with hollow eyes and a tattered coat standing in the bottom-right corner. On day one it is small and faint: 8% of the photo width at 15% opacity. Each day it’s bigger and more solid, as if it’s walking towards them, reaching 32% width and 75% opacity on day seven. By day seven it stops getting closer, and it stays.
Setup
- Open this page in Safari on the iPhone, download the file (or AirDrop it), open it from Safari Downloads or Files, and tap Add Shortcut.
- Long-press it in Shortcuts → All Shortcuts → Rename and call it Wallpaper Refresh, so it doesn’t give itself away.
- With the phone unlocked, run it once. Pick the photo they use as their wallpaper. This run saves the base photo and sets the first ghost frame immediately. Tap Always Allow where offered for Photos and Files; allow any other requested access.
- In the shortcut’s Set Wallpaper action, expand its options and confirm Legibility Blur and Crop to Subject are off. Select the intended photo wallpaper. Compare the Lock Screen too: Home Screen widgets can cover the figure. If the wallpaper does not change, open the shortcut’s … editor and run it there to see the action that fails. In Set Wallpaper, select the photo wallpaper you want to update if iOS asks for a target. Check that iCloud Drive is enabled and Files → iCloud Drive → Shortcuts → shortcut-to-hell contains the saved base photo and day file.
- For a clear Home Screen image, open Settings → Wallpaper → Customize under the Home Screen, turn Blur off, and tap Done. The shortcut disables Legibility Blur and Crop to Subject in its wallpaper action. If an older installed copy keeps enabling blur, replace it with the latest download.
- Once the manual run works, create Shortcuts → Automation → + → Time of Day, set 7:00 AM, Daily, select Run Immediately, tap Next and choose Wallpaper Refresh. Each successful run advances the figure one step, including manual tests.
If the figure is missing
Open Files → iCloud Drive → Shortcuts → shortcut-to-hell → haunted-wallpaper-latest.jpg. This is the rendered image before iOS applies it. If the figure appears there but not on the wallpaper, check the selected wallpaper target, Legibility Blur, and Home Screen widget placement. If that file is missing, run from the shortcut editor to find the failing action.
Undo
Open Shortcuts → Automation, swipe left on the automation and tap Delete. Then delete the shortcut. Set their wallpaper back from Settings → Wallpaper (the original photo is untouched). To reset this prank, delete only haunted-wallpaper-base.jpg and haunted-wallpaper-day.txt in Files → iCloud Drive → Shortcuts → shortcut-to-hell. Other pranks share that folder.
Variations
- Use a cut-out of you instead of the figure: swap
assets/figure.png. Less scary, much funnier.
State and testing
The saved state lives in Files → iCloud Drive → Shortcuts → shortcut-to-hell: haunted-wallpaper-base.jpg, haunted-wallpaper-day.txt. Keep iCloud Drive available. Manual runs affect the same counters as automation runs. Deleting this shortcut does not delete its saved state.
Test the trigger
Installing the file does not create its automation. After the manual test, trigger the event once and check the result. If the shortcut picker is unavailable, create a blank automation, add Run Shortcut, and select this shortcut. Menus, previews and app-opening actions may still need interaction or an unlocked phone even with Run Immediately selected. If it stops, run from the shortcut’s … editor to identify the failing action.