The iPhone 6s was released last week and it comes with a host of new features, including Live Photos. Here’s how to get Live Photos on older iPhones.
The iPhone 6s retains the same design and look as the iPhone 6, but all the new features are clearly visible. For example, there’s a faster processor, more memory, a new 3D Touch display technology, and a much better camera, or taking pictures and recording videos, including 4K video.
One feature of the new camera is called Live Photos, which essentially records three seconds of video when you take a photo and gives you a kind of animated GIF with sound. This lets you bring your photos to life, so if a photo sometimes doesn’t cut it, Live Photos makes up for it by giving your images a little more realism.
Unfortunately, this feature is only officially available on the iPhone 6s, meaning you won’t be able to take advantage of Live Photos if you have an iPhone 6 or older.
However, all hope is not lost as it is a jailbreak tweak that brings many of the same functions of Live Photos to older iPhones. Here’s how to get Live Photos on an older iPhone.
Live Photos on Old iPhones
To take advantage of Live Photos on an older iPhone, you must first jailbreak your iPhone. The process is actually really easy and only takes a few minutes, but you must be running iOS 8.4.0 or earlier as iOS 8.4.1 and iOS 9 are not currently jailbreakable.
Jailbreaking your iPhone gives you Live Photos functionality on iPhone 4s and later and iPad 2 and later as long as you’re running iOS 8.
The jailbreak tweak you need is called PhotosLive, which you can get from Cydia, and it will only cost you $1.99, which is the low price you have to pay to get Live Photos on your old iPhone.
One thing to keep in mind of course is that PhotosLive definitely It’s like Live Photos on the iPhone 6s, but really close.
After installing and activating the tweak, you can adjust some settings, including how much video you want to record (up to 3 seconds) while taking photos, as well as choosing between a one- or two-finger press. -Finger press to view Live Photos. The tweak comes with settings to adjust the front flash when taking a selfie.
From there, you can navigate to the stock Camera app and a new button will appear at the top that looks like the camera shutter. Tapping it will activate Live Photos (and you’ll see a yellow tint on the screen).
When you take a photo, the camera will automatically start recording a 3-second (or as long as you set it up) video.
You can then view the Live Photo in the Photos app and press and hold it with one or two fingers to start playing the Live Photo. The Photos app will even create a separate album into which all your Live Photos will go. Also, each Live Photo has an icon in the upper left corner so they’re easier to spot.
As you can see, PhotosLive offers pretty much the same experience as Live Photos on the iPhone 6s with a few minor differences, but it’s essentially the same thing. You no longer need an iPhone 6s to take advantage of Live Photos, and you can even record 4K video and get 3D Touch-like features on your old iPhone.
