Live Photos is a new feature exclusive to iPhone 6s. Here’s how to convert Live Photos to GIFs or even standalone videos.
The iPhone 6s was launched last month and although it has the same overall design and look as the iPhone 6, the new device comes with some new features that were hidden at first. Most importantly, the iPhone 6s comes with a new pressure-sensitive display technology called 3D Touch; so you can do different things like tap to open or select something or press harder to bring up alternative options and shortcuts.
The iPhone 6s also has a better camera this time around and has a 12-megapixel sensor instead of the 8-megapixel sensor in the iPhone 6. That means better photos, but Apple has also added the ability to record video in 4K resolution. four times larger than standard 1080p HD video.
Another new feature of the camera is the ability to take what Apple calls Live Photos, which records a short 3-second video to accompany any photo you take and gives you a short animated GIF of the moment you just took.
However, they are not actually animated GIFs, but instead use Apple’s own proprietary file format, which is not yet fully known. The good news is that there are already apps available that can turn your Live Photos into animated GIFs or even standalone videos that you can watch on any device.
Convert Live Photos to GIFs
Animated GIFs are a big deal on the internet, and they’re plastered everywhere. At some point you can’t get on the internet without seeing a GIF.
A big issue with Live Photos on iPhone 6s is that they can only be viewed on devices running iOS 9 or OS X El Capitan. This is pretty limited because you can’t directly share them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.
However, a new app called Live GIF It makes this possible by converting Live Photos to GIF format or video format.
After downloading the app and allowing it to access your photos, your Live Photos will appear in the app and then you can proceed to convert them to an animated GIF or just a regular video.
You can then share the GIF or video directly from the Live GIF app and keep sharing them via iMessage and the like (just like in a regular Live Photo) while also sharing it to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and a handful of other apps.
Live Photos are turned on by default on your iPhone 6s; so if you’ve never tried to turn this off manually, you’re taking a Live Photo with every photo you take. However, you can turn off Live Photos from settings.
If you have an older iPhone and want the Live Photos feature, there is a way to make it happen, but you’ll have to jailbreak it on iOS 9. The process is pretty simple and pretty straightforward, and once done, you can install a jailbreak tweak on your iPhone that enables Live Photos even if you don’t have an iPhone 6s.
Of course, you’ll want to be aware of how much storage Live Photos takes up on your iPhone. Apple doesn’t give an estimate as to how much space they take up, but Live Photo is said to take up about twice as much as a regular photo, so you’re actually cutting your photo storage capacity in half.
That’s not a huge deal if you have a 64GB iPhone or a 128GB model, but 16GB owners will need to clean up their photos frequently to make room for more.
