If you have a tendency to forget Live Photos exist on your iPhone, you’re not alone. What you need is a good reason to share those moving images, or a good way to GIF-iphy them—or both. With its latest update, Google’s Motion Stills app is just the solution.
Once you give Motion Stills (free on iOS) access to your photo library, it automatically identifies all the Live Photos you’ve taken. Using the app, you can make some tweaks, such as looping or reversing the video, or share it in GIF format. Now, though, you can also add moving text to your images.
How to turn Live Photos into GIFs
It’s incredibly easy: Just select the Live Photo you want to play with and tap the “T” button at the bottom. Then, type in your text, selecting what color background and font you want for it. And lastly, place the text on the image. If you place the text on or near something that’s moving—say, a hockey player speeding across the ice, or a truck passing by in the background—the text will cling to that object, following its movement.
Adding text can make a Live Photo more silly, or more memorable.
GIF via Christina Bonnington/Motion Stills
Motion Stills is incredibly easy to use.
GIF via Christina Bonnington/Motion Stills
You can also try turning your Live Photo into a cinemagraph, keeping the background perfectly still while only the subject moves (looping GIF-like, of course). Google explains how it accomplishes all this in a post on its research blog.
If you haven’t already given the app a try, it’s definitely worth a download.
H/T Mashable