Help — Mural

Overview

Mural is a next-generation dynamic wallpaper app for Mac. Set any video or image as your desktop wallpaper, then layer real-time color effects, live widgets, animated text, and atmospheric audio on top — all from a single creative workspace called the Lab.

Video wallpapers, Lab effects, Themes, and all creative tools work right out of the box. For dynamic lock screen sync, Mural works together with Mural Engine — a free companion that Mural opens automatically whenever your lock screen needs updating.

Requirements

macOS 14.0 Sonoma or later
Apple Silicon (M1+) or Intel — both fully supported
Mural Engine (optional, for lock screen sync only)

Getting Started

1

Install Mural

Download from the Mac App Store. On first launch, Mural appears in your menu bar. Click the icon to open the main window.

2

Set Your First Wallpaper

From the Home tab, click Import to load any video or image — or drag a file straight onto the window. Click Apply to set it as your live desktop wallpaper. Or browse the built-in Themes library and apply with a single click.

Themes

The Themes library contains curated cinematic wallpapers, each paired with a matching atmosphere soundtrack. Hover any card to see a live silent preview. Click to apply instantly.

Flow Mode picks a random theme from the current category — useful when you can't decide.

Freeze, Loop & History

Freeze Frame

Scrub the filmstrip to lock onto any perfect still frame. Use arrow keys for single-frame stepping.

A-B Loop

Set an in-point and out-point to loop a specific segment with frame-accurate precision.

History

Every wallpaper state you've applied is saved automatically — with exact Lab effects, Freeze position, and Loop range. Tap any entry to restore it exactly as it was.

Lab — Grading

Professional color control over any wallpaper. Presets: Cinematic, Noir, Vivid, Warm, Cyber. Manual controls: Hue, Saturation, Brightness, Contrast. Texture effects: CRT Scanlines and Film Grain, rendered by Metal GPU shaders in real time. Click Apply to push changes to your desktop.

Lab — Widgets

Clocks

Digital, Flip, and Analog styles — each with multiple variants. Every color element is customizable. Freely drag, resize, and rotate on the canvas.

Weather & Atmosphere

Real-time particle effects: Rain, Snow, Lightning, or Fog. Nature Mode cycles automatically throughout the day. Each effect links to the Ambience audio system.

Momo Companion

A 3D companion whose appearance is generated deterministically from your Mac's serial number. Uniquely yours, consistent across reinstalls.

M-CORE

A system monitor capsule showing live CPU and RAM usage directly on your desktop.

Custom Media

Import your own images, GIFs, or video clips as floating overlays. Transparent backgrounds fully supported. Multiple widgets can be on screen simultaneously. Motion presets — float, breathe, sway, spin, spin CCW, bounce or strobe, at three speeds — carry through to the desktop and lock screen. Reorder widgets by dragging in the list — list order is layer order.

Lab — Mantra

Layer animated text directly on your desktop. Six 3D dynamic engines: flowing ribbons, orbital rings, swirling spirals, and more. Or write your own words across multiple independent lines, each with its own typography and kinetic motion — Float, Prism, Holo, Focus, Pulse, Glitch, or Neon — freely positioned and reordered in the list. Enable Serendipity mode to auto-cycle curated short verses.

Lab — Ambience

Layer soundscapes over your wallpaper. Built-in presets or import your own music playlist. Each weather effect plays its own environmental audio automatically.

Personalization

A few more ways to make Mural feel like yours, outside the Lab.

Audio Console

All audio is routed through a four-track mixing console, accessible in Settings — Video, Atmosphere, SFX, and Custom Media, each with an independent fader plus a global Master bus.

Menu Bar Color

Tint your menu bar to match your style, available in Settings. By default, Mural adapts the color automatically. Turn on manual mode to pick from nine preset colors or the full color wheel — Mural remembers the last color you picked.

Solid Color Wallpapers

Set a flat color as your wallpaper instead of a video or image. Choose from 20 preset colors across four palettes — Neutrals, Cool, Purple, and Warm — or pick any color with the built-in color wheel and save it to your own My Colors library. Turn on Shuffle to automatically rotate through a palette in order or at random, on an interval you set.

Dynamic Lock Screen

For Mural 3.1.0 and later. Turn on Sync Dynamic Wallpaper to Lock Screen in Mural's Dynamic Lock Screen tab, and your lock screen plays your Mural wallpaper with all Lab effects applied — custom media, weather, Companion and Mantra text keep moving there too. Every change you make syncs on its own. Or use a still frame of your wallpaper, or set a separate lock screen in System Settings. Automatic sync works on macOS 14, 15, 26 and 27.

Lock screen sync uses Mural Engine, a free companion app for Mac. Download it on your Mac, move it to Applications and open it once — Mural opens it automatically from then on. On macOS 14 and 15, click Authorize when asked and enter your administrator password, needed only once. Download Engine →

To update Mural Engine: if it's running, quit it from the menu bar, download the latest version, open the disk image and drag Mural Engine.app into Applications. When macOS asks, choose Replace — not Keep Both — so only one copy stays on your Mac. Then open Mural Engine once.