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Updated
How to Set a GIF as Your Wallpaper on Mac
With Plash
- Copy the link of the GIF. It must be the link of the image itself, which usually ends in
.gif, not the link of a page that shows it. In a browser, Control-click the GIF, and choose “Copy Image Address” or “Copy Image Link”. - Open Plash. Its icon is in the menu bar.
- Click the icon, and choose “Add Website…”.
- Paste the link in “URL”, and click “Add”.
Plash makes the GIF fill the screen, and crops the edges when the shape is different from the screen. So a large GIF with the shape of your screen looks best.
Tips
- An animated wallpaper uses power. On a MacBook, open the Plash settings, click “Advanced”, and turn on “Deactivate while on battery”.
- Add several GIFs, and switch between them in the menu.
- For a GIF file on your Mac, put it in a folder together with a file named
index.htmlthat shows the GIF. When you add the website, click “Local Website…”, and choose the folder.
Plash can show any website as the wallpaper, not only a GIF. See how to use a website as your wallpaper.
Get Plash
Make any website your desktop wallpaper
Free
- Platform
- macOS
- Requires
- macOS 26.4 or later
- Category
- Utilities
- Released
- January 2020
- Privacy
- No personal data collected
- Updated
- November 2026
- Version
- 2.17.5
- Size
- 6 MB
Without an app
macOS has no animated GIF wallpaper. In “System Settings › Wallpaper”, you can choose a dynamic wallpaper, which changes during the day, or an aerial, which moves slowly when you lock or unlock the Mac. Apple’s instructions.
These are good when you only want some motion. To use your own animation, you need an app.