Backdrop 2.9: New Menu Bar Panel and Lock Screen Wallpapers

Backdrop 2.9 is out today, October 10. It's the biggest update yet to how Backdrop plays your wallpapers, and it puts more of Backdrop right in your menu bar.

An all-new menu bar panel

The menu bar panel is redesigned around big artwork, with a heart for Favorites and your queue right there. You can see what's playing next in your playlist, or your recently played wallpapers, without opening the app. With more than one display, or a Lock Screen with its own wallpaper, each one gets its own page in the panel.

A separate Lock Screen wallpaper

Give your Lock Screen its own wallpaper, animated or still (macOS 26 or later). It can use the same wallpaper as your desktop or a different one, and a still can be a frame of the wallpaper or an image you choose.

Every display, your way

The new Settings › Displays shows all your displays and lets you set up each one:

• give it its own wallpaper, or the same as another display;
• turn Backdrop off for it, and it gets its macOS wallpaper back;
• choose animated or still for the desktop and the Lock Screen (macOS 26 or later).

A display you connect for the first time starts with the same wallpaper as your main display.

Smoother everywhere

• Crossfades. Wallpapers crossfade instead of cutting, and switching between your desktop and a different Lock Screen wallpaper crossfades when you lock and unlock.
• More reliable playback. Smoother, more reliable playback on your desktop, Lock Screen and screen saver, and your wallpaper now shows on your login window too.

Also new

• Settings is reorganized into Displays, Playback and Content.
• A Share usage data option in Settings.

Fixed

• A launch crash on macOS 26.0.
• A Lock Screen stuck on Apple's aerials.
• Problems after updating or reinstalling.

Thanks for all the feedback that went into this one. If you already have Backdrop, choose Check for Updates in the app. If you're new, get Backdrop for live wallpapers on your desktop and Lock Screen and try it free.