Some iPhone features are just too useful not to use. If it’s up to us, this feature is definitely one of them.
Your iPhone is full of features, and most of them are automatically enabled on your device. That way, you enjoy the most useful features without having to do anything yourself.
One of those features is “Live Photos,” but not everyone is happy with it. Some users find the feature just a lame trick, or disable it to save space. Still, there are some reasons why you really want to leave the feature on your iPhone anyway.
Live Photos for your iPhone
Live Photos lets you capture more than what you do with a “regular” photo. The feature mixes a standard picture with a short video that you can view by holding down a photo in your Photos app.
This video is only a few seconds long and recorded at a slower frame rate. In addition to moving images, you also record sound with your Live Photo on your iPhone. The footage shows you exactly what happened a few seconds before and after the photo was taken.
You may be wondering why you would want the feature on your iPhone. And we have an obvious answer to that. Have you ever looked at an old photo of your parents or grandparents and wondered what that moment really looked like? What kind of faces did they make before or after the photo was taken? That’s exactly what you do get to see with a Live Photo.
You may not appreciate those few extra seconds at the moment. But one day you’ll be very glad you saved them. Just being able to hear the voices of the people in the picture can bring back fun memories.
Here’s what else you can do with them
The handy iPhone feature lets you do much more than just catch memories. One of the most useful features is catching missed moments. If you press the shutter too late, you’ve missed a memory that you can’t get back, but can save if you use Live Photos. You do this by choosing the frame of the video next to your Live Photo and marking it as the “main photo.
You can also select multiple Live Photos and export them as a video directly to your iPhone. You can even share these videos with non-Apple device users. Open the Photos app and select how many Live Photos you want to export. Once you’ve selected the Live Photos, tap the dot icon in the lower right corner and choose “Save as Video.
It is also possible to save Live Photos as stickers and forward them to friends and family on WhatsApp. To do this, find a Live Photo you want to make a sticker from, tap and hold the subject until it lights up. Then press “Add Sticker.
Non-users have one small point
Live Photos for your iPhone are great, but there is one drawback. They take up quite a bit of storage space, which means your iCloud storage will fill up faster. As a result, you’ll probably need to upgrade sooner if you use them.
The video next to a Live Photo is about 5 MB per photo, while the still image itself can range from 1 MB to 6 MB, depending on what’s happening in the photo. For some users, this is a dealbreaker. But remember that videos take up much more space, and you probably won’t think twice before recording them.