Show HN: FreeWall – A minimalist iOS wallpaper app using Shortcuts

1 points by onecookie 11 hours ago

Hi HN,

I built FreeWall after getting an iPhone Air recently.

I wanted to change wallpapers more often, but the process on iOS still feels surprisingly manual: find an image, download it, go to Settings, set it, repeat. So I really just wanted a small utility that does one thing well.

Apple doesn’t provide a public API to set wallpapers programmatically. Instead of trying to work around that, I decided to lean into Shortcuts, which is one of the most powerful (and underused) extension mechanisms on iOS.

FreeWall works by:

- Limited scope by design

– Curating high-quality images from free sources like Unsplash and Pexels (huge thanks to those communities)

– Letting users trigger a Shortcut to set the wallpaper in one tap

– Keeping the app free, with no ads, and no subscriptions

This won’t be useful for everyone, but it fits how I personally use my phone: quick changes, minimal friction, and no noise.

I’d really appreciate feedback, especially from people who use Shortcuts or have thoughts on small, opinionated iOS utilities.

App Store link: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6755912102