Live Photos

Live Photo Wallpapers for iPhone with Wally Papes

Jim Gresham ∙ Updated March 14, 2022

One of my favorite features of iOS is the ability to take Live Photos. It is shocking how drastically different a memory expresses itself over 3 seconds, as opposed to a single instance in time. I frequently find myself going back through a photo album, to play through each Live Photo.

Launching with the feature, came the ability to set Live Photos as wallpapers, both on the Lock and Home screens. However, there is really no great way to share Live Photos as posts on the internet. Dave Gorum comes to the rescue with Wally Papes, a curated collection of Live Photo wallpapers for your iPhone.

Apple launches JavaScript API for embedding Live Photos on the web

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 21, 2017

Apple on Thursday announced a new JavaScript-based API for web developers who wish to enable embedding of Live Photos in their websites and web apps. Called LivePhotosKit JS, the new API is in addition to Apple's current Live Photos API which enables Live Photos on iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Mac devices and in apps that use it, like Facebook's mainland mobile app, Tumblr for iOS and others.

How to teach your iPhone or iPad to recognize people’s faces in the Photos app

Steffen Reich ∙ Updated March 16, 2018

Organizing one’s photos by date or occasion is by far the most common methodology in photography, and of course why wouldn’t it be? The simple fact of the matter is that a chronological structure of photos satisfies most search requests because you pretty much know immediately where to look for a certain snapshot. With that said, more unconventional efforts such as accumulating every single photo taken by the beach or all shots of your family ever snapped, quickly render the chronologic album structure rigid and dated.

How to select different still frames of Live Photos

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 23, 2024

In this tutorial, we'll show you how to go through and select a different still frame of a Live Photo on your iPhone or iPad.

How to preserve your iPhone camera settings

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 22, 2024

In this tutorial, we will go over the quick steps to have your iPhone or iPad Camera remember your last set of preferences, and not reset the options to the default when you exit it and open it again later.

How to add Live Photos to your Instagram stories

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated March 15, 2022

The official Instagram app can upload Live Photos and turn them into Boomerangs, and the best part is, you don't even need any other app to do it. However, Live Photos can only be used in your Instagram stories. You can't use them as regular Instagram posts, and if you do, they will appear like a standard still image.

In this post, we show you how to turn your Live Photo into a Boomerang and post it as an Instagram story.

10+ new features in iOS 10.2 beta 1

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 14, 2017

Apple yesterday issued beta 1 of the forthcoming iOS 10.2 software update for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. For starters, iOS 10.2 beta 1 includes three new wallpapers, provides a bunch of new emoji as part of the Unicode 9.0 standard and gives Camera the optional ability to remember filter, Live Photo and mode settings.

Star ratings are back in the Music app and Videos has its own widget. Oh, and you can now annoy friends with a brand new animation in Messages.

Without further ado, here's our video hands-on with iOS 10.2 beta 1 accompanied by a detailed description of all the new features and enhancements.

New Google app turns Live Photos into animated GIFs and movies with cinematic backgrounds

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 7, 2016

Google today announced it's launching a brand new iPhone application aimed at those who wish to turn their Live Photos into animated GIFs. Aptly named Motion Stills, the app turns Live Photos into Motion Stills with Google’s stabilization technology and cinematic backgrounds.

These Motion Stills can then be shared as looping GIFs on social media. Motion Stills is available free in the App Store.

tvOS 9.2 is here: Dictation, folders, Live Photos, wireless keyboards, iCloud Photo Library & more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated September 11, 2023

tvOS 9.2, a new update for the operating system which powers the fourth-generation Apple TV, is now available for public consumption. The new firmware, released alongside iOS 9.3, OS X El Capitan 10.11.4 and watchOS 2.2, is a very interesting update for the cool new features it brings to the table.

tvOS 9.2 enables several features missing from the initial tvOS release, including long-awaited support for wireless keyboards, dictation, Siri support for App Store searches, app folders on the Home screen, a revamped app switcher, Siri Remote improvements, support for Live Photos and iCloud Photo Library and more.

OS X El Capitan 10.11.4 is out with full Live Photos sharing, password-protected Notes and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 5, 2018

After spending more than two months in beta, OS X 10.11.4, a fourth major update to OS X El Capitan, today released for public consumption. The software update is now available and recommended for all OS X El Capitan users.

Even though it comes with a few noticeable outward-facing changes, OS X 10.11.4 does pack in some newsworthy improvements—namely in stock Messages, Notes and Photos apps. Full sharing of Live Photos via iMessages has been implemented throughout the system, too. Like other major OS X releases, 10.11.4 includes a handful of under-the-hood changes and tons of bug fixes and performance optimizations.

This app lets you crop, zoom and trim Live Photos without destroying the live part

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 24, 2016

The Photos app on your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Mac lets you use the Auto Enhance and Remove Red-Eye tools with Live Photos in a non-destructive manner, which is nice.

But use filters, or perform a crop or trim on your Live Photo and it'll get turned into a still image because Apple's Photos solution isn't advanced enough (yet) to support these editing operations in conjunction with Live Photos.

This can be quite cumbersome for two reasons. A) You must manually restore your Live Photo by tapping Edit → Revert; and B) these stills only include the motionless part of your Live Photos.

With Live Crop, a nifty little app by developer MobiLab, not only can you trim and crop out parts of your Live Photo without destroying its live component, but also crop, zoom, trim and resize Live Photos, your videos as well as animated GIFs.

Apple posts new iPhone 6s ads highlighting 3D Touch and Live Photos

Cody Lee ∙ February 17, 2016

Apple on Wednesday posted two new iPhone 6s ads to its YouTube channel entitled Less Time and Live Photos. As it says in the headline, each spot highlights one of two major features from the company's latest handset: 3D Touch and Live Photos.

The first video, Less Time, talks about what 3D Touch is and the many ways you can use it. Notably, actress Aubrey Plaza makes a cameo. The second clip, Live Photos, similarly shows the feature in action, and lists off some of its many benefits.