Several phone manufacturers added some form of Motion Picture feature to their phones a few years ago. While the name changes from smartphone to smartphone—some call it Motion Photo, Live Photo, Moving Picture, Top Shot, or whatever (I made one of those up, guess which one)—the main benefit is the same: images move.
Here’s the thing: I used to turn off motion pictures all the time because I thought it was pretty useless. Who wants pictures that move? That’s what videos are for. At least that’s how I felt until I became a father – now motion pictures are indispensable. The feature has saved so many pictures I’ve taken of my very, very tossing daughter because even if I don’t get the picture, she’s probably in the motion picture.
Because of this, I’ve made sure Motion Photos is on regardless of the device I’m using (currently the excellent Pixel 6a). Below is a brief overview of how the feature works and the steps to enable it on some popular smartphones.
How motion pictures work
Motion pictures rely on a fairly complex combination of machine learning (ML) and software tricks, but the basic premise involves capturing a short video when people press the shutter button. The thing is, a video is just a stream of photos stitched together, and most modern smartphones already take a bunch of photos when you press the shutter button for things like HDR.
This is a very simple explanation, of course – there is much more to it. Google has a whole blog post about its motion picture technology that does a great job of showing some of the complex ML work that goes on in the background – presumably other manufacturers use similar systems.
It’s worth noting that some parts of motion pictures are pretty consistent across devices. Whether you’re using an Apple or Android phone, you should be able to launch a photo with motion by pressing and holding the photo when viewing it in your gallery. I’ve also noticed that the actual photo often looks better than the motion photo, in part because the photo usually gets the full benefit of image processing and HDR, while the motion photo does not.
How to enable motion pictures
iPhone
Apple’s Live Photo feature is very easily turned on and off right in the camera. Look for the soft eye-like icon in the upper-right corner of the camera — if it’s yellow, Live Photos are on. If it’s white with a line through it, Live Photos are off.
In the Apple Photos app, look for the “Live” icon in the upper-left corner when viewing a photo to find out if an image is also a Live Photo.
Google Pixel
Google packaged its Motion Photos feature into something called “Best Photo” when the Pixel 3 launched. Top Shot adds some extra features to Motion Pictures, such as automatically suggesting the best shot based on everything captured with Motion Picture. This is part of what made motion pictures such a lifesaver for me, as I could take a picture of my daughter and then use Top Shot to select the motion photo frame where she is actually still smiling.
To turn on Top Shot in the Google Pixel’s camera app, tap the settings icon in the upper-left corner, then choose one of three options: off, auto, or on. I usually start with Auto as it’s pretty good at capturing motion pictures and launching Top Shot when I need it (like when I’m taking a photo of my daughter) and when I don’t (like when I’m taking a photo of a flower).
In the Google Photos app, look for a round icon with a play button at the top of the screen when viewing a photo (usually next to the Cast button). This icon marks which photos have motion — you can press and hold the photo or tap the icon to play the motion.
Samsung Galaxy
Similarly, you can enable motion pictures on Samsung phones in the camera app. Look for a square icon with a triangle crossing the right edge — this is the Motion Picture icon. Tap it to turn motion pictures on or off.
To view a photo in motion, look for the “View photo in motion” button in the Samsung Gallery app.
Image credit: Samsung
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