Live Photos and motion photos: the video hidden in your picture

What Live Photos record

Apple's help page says that with Live Photos, your iPhone records what happens 1.5 seconds before and after you take a picture. Apple describes the feature as recording moments in movement and sound.

The Camera app shows a Live Photo button. When it has a slash through it, Live Photo is off. Apple notes that the Camera app turns Live Photo on again automatically, unless you change a setting, covered below.

Motion photos on Android

Google publishes the format used for motion photos. The specification describes them as single files that contain a still image and a short video, which includes audio recording. The still comes first, as a JPEG, HEIC or AVIF image, and the video is appended to it, at the very end of the file.

That design is clever: an app that doesn't understand motion photos just shows the still picture. But it also means a file that looks like an ordinary photo can carry a video inside it, and you won't see it unless an app plays it.

On Pixel phones, the Camera settings offer Motion Photos with Auto or On, and you can export a motion photo as a video. Samsung's help describes Motion Photo on Galaxy phones as capturing a few seconds of action leading up to when the shutter button is released, switched on from a control in the Camera app.

What travels when you share

Sharing the original file can send more than you meant:

• Extra seconds of video around the moment you chose, before and after for Live Photos, before for Samsung's Motion Photo.
• Sound: a conversation, a name being called, a television in the background.
• Location: Apple's personal safety guide says the coordinates where you were are embedded into each photo and video the Camera takes when it has location access.
• The usual photo details, such as date and camera. The guide on what EXIF data reveals covers those.

Turning the feature off

On iPhone, tap the Live Photo button so a slash appears. Because the Camera app turns Live Photo back on automatically, go to Settings, tap Camera, then Preserve Settings, and make sure the switch next to Live Photo is on. The Camera then keeps the setting you last used.

For a Live Photo you already took, open it, tap Edit and tap the LIVE button at the top of the screen to turn Live Photo off or back on.

On a Pixel, Motion Photos is a setting in the Camera app's settings. On a Galaxy phone, it's the Motion Photo control in the Camera app. Check it there before you photograph something you'll share widely.

Sending a still instead

On iPhone, Apple's help says that to share the still photo and not the Live Photo, tap LIVE in the upper-left corner of the photo before sharing. Photos shared through Mail are sent as a still image.

Whatever phone you use, the only way to be sure is to check the file you actually send, not the one in your gallery.

What Remove EXIF data does with the video

Remove EXIF data takes out metadata blocks without re-saving the picture in JPG, PNG and WebP files. For JPG it also removes data appended after the main picture, such as a camera's second preview image or a motion photo's video, and lists it as embedded preview or video, so you can see it was there. What remains is the still picture, with its colour profile and orientation tag kept.

HEIC and AVIF files are saved as a new JPG instead. The tool runs in your browser, so the video, the sound and the location are never uploaded anywhere while you clean the file.