Thanks to Google’s latest update to their Motion Still app, iPhone users can now pick a new frame for Live Photos. The app fixes everything annoying about Apple’s Live Photos, and this is just another great feature to add to Motion Still’s impressive features list.
If you’re not familiar with Motion Stills, it’s an app that turns the iPhone’s Live Photos into GIFs and videos that can be easily shared outside of the iOS ecosystem. The latest update fixes a common problem with the canonical “main” frame selected automatically by Apple’s system. Users can now select any frame they want and export it as a Live Photo with that frame as the main image.
When editing a Live Photo in Motion Stills, click on the Share icon and select “Export Live Photo.” There will be a simpler slider which allows you to scroll through the captured frames. Once you hit the check mark, the new Live Photo will be saved to your Camera Roll. It essentially works like any other Live Photo without the inconvenience of 3D Touch on the screen to see the exact moment you wanted.
But nothing in life is perfect and this app is no exception. Live Photos saves the primary frame in full 12-megapixel clarity while the other frames are in a lower resolution for the clip. That means, if you switch out the frame in Motion Stills, it’ll be a lower quality photo than the original and less detailed, though, probably not to the extent that would be noticeable on your phone.
This new frame change feature is in addition to a lot of the other great features of Motion Stills. It allows users to apply photo stabilization in the absence of a tripod, by keeping the background of a Live Photo steady, which is certainly transformative, as you can see from this example GIF:
This innovative technology also allows you to make movies using multiple Live Photos to make a longer file. Motion Stills also makes looping GIFs from Live Photos really easy by automatically picking the best place to restart the GIF.
Android devices won’t be incorporating this app functionality anytime soon— considering the fact that they can’t take Live Photos — though we hope they incorporate the technology behind Motion Stills into the Google Camera.
Just updated your iPhone? You’ll find new emoji, enhanced security, podcast transcripts, Apple Cash virtual numbers, and other useful features. There are even new additions hidden within Safari. Find out what’s new and changed on your iPhone with the iOS 17.4 update.
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