iPhone owners can now send and receive Live Photos in WhatsApp.
The feature started to roll out to WhatsApp users worldwide earlier this week — a decade after Apple first introduced the functionality into its bestselling iPhone. For the first time, you can include a brief three-second glimpse of video from before and after the shutter button was pressed.
While iPhone owners could always send Live Photos — and watch the snippet of video shot at the same time — on iMessage, that additional footage was removed when sending the same photograph on WhatsApp. The Meta-owned messaging service has now added the ability to send Live Photos in their original format in individual conversations, group chats, and channels.
Once you've shared the Live Photo, a small motion icon pops up in the corner of the preview to show that it's animated for the recipient. This is similar to the icon used by Apple to demonstrate that a photograph has motion available in the Photos app.
With the latest update, WhatsApp users can send and receive Live Photos with the snapshot of footage captured before and after the shutter button was pressed
|APPLE | META PRESS OFFICE
WhatsApp is the most widely used messaging service in the world, with more than 2 billion active users across over 180 countries. You also don't need a mobile data plan to talk to friends or family because you can connect via Wi-Fi to send messages or make calls.
This could be especially helpful if you want to speak with someone overseas, as many international data plans are known to be more expensive and can add up over time. The handy app is also built with end-to-end encryption, ensuring that conversations remain private and secure.
WhatsApp is constantly launching new updates and features, too. Most recently, it came out with the ability to rewrite your text messages for you. Called Writing Help, WhatsApp can transform your texts with Artificial Intelligence (AI) while keeping your conversations completely private.
This new tool allows you to rewrite messages entirely to adjust tone or correct spelling mistakes. For example, you'll be able to make your texts sound more professional for work chats, ask the AI to add some humour to lighten the mood with friends, or craft supportive responses when friends need encouragement.
New tools to stop scam messages on WhatsApp have also been added to help keep fraudsters out of your messages.
With WhatsApp releasing the feature to send live photos in its application, it gives you another media-sharing ability
|Live Photos were first introduced by Apple in 2015 alongside iPhone 6s, adding a twist to normal photography. Instead of capturing just a single frame, Live Photos record a short burst of video and sound — 1.5 seconds before and after you press the shutter — bringing images to life with movement and context.
This capability, enabled by default on every iPhone shipped since the iPhone 6s, has been copied by other smartphone manufacturers, so the change in WhatsApp will impact more than just iPhone owners.
At the time, the Californian company stated: "Live Photos, which go beyond snapshots to capture moments in motion. Live Photos are beautiful 12-megapixel photos that, with just a press, reveal the moments immediately before and after the shot was taken, so you can enjoy a living memory rather than an instant frozen in time."
Instead of capturing just a single frame, Live Photos record a short burst of video and sound—1.5 seconds before and after you press the shutter—bringing images to life with movement and context | APPLE PRESS OFFICEGoogle rolled out Motion Photos, while Samsung introduced Motion Photo, using the same concept as Apple. Nearly a decade later, Live Photos are no longer just a quirky extra.
As such, hundreds of millions of users now capture their memories in this hybrid format. From creating dynamic wallpapers to reliving candid moments that would otherwise be lost between frames, Live Photos have quietly reshaped how people think about digital photography.
The feature is officially rolling out to users gradually for both iOS and Android users, so keep an eye out if you don't see it yet.
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