apple-dev-mcp/content/universal/live-photos.md

Complete Apple development guidance: Human Interface Guidelines (design) + Technical Documentation for iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS

---
title: Live Photos
platform: universal
category: technologies
url: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/live-photos
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last_updated: 2025-07-20T03:45:48.547Z
keywords: ["live photos","universal","technologies","motion","controls","visual","system","color"]
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---

Live Photos Live Photos lets people capture favorite memories in a sound- and motion-rich interactive experience that adds vitality to traditional still photos. When Live Photos is available, the Camera app captures additional content — including audio and extra frames — before and after people take a photo. People press a Live Photo to see it spring to life. Video with custom controls. Content description: A video of a Live Photo in the Photos app on i Phone. When the video plays, a circular gesture indicator appears overlaid on the video and demonstrates the act of swiping right to navigate from a Live Photo of a flower to a still photo of two people walking in a field. A gesture indicator then swipes left to return to the Live Photo of the flower again. When the Live Photo appears, the flower moves slightly. A gesture indicator then demonstrates pressing the Live Photo, which causes the flower to move for a longer period of time. Play Best practices Apply adjustments to all frames. If your app lets people apply effects or adjustments to a Live Photo, make sure those changes are applied to the entire photo. If you don’t support this, give people the option of converting it to a still photo. Keep Live Photo content intact. It’s important for people to experience Live Photos in a consistent way that uses the same visual treatment and interaction model across all apps. Don’t disassemble a Live Photo and present its frames or audio separately. Implement a great photo sharing experience. If your app supports photo sharing, let people preview the entire contents of Live Photos before deciding to share. Always offer the option to share Live Photos as traditional photos. Clearly indicate when a Live Photo is downloading and when the photo is playable. Show a progress indicator during the download process and provide some indication when the download is complete. Display Live Photos as traditional photos in environments that don’t support Live Photos. Don’t attempt to replicate the Live Photos experience provided in a supported environment. Instead, show a traditional, still representation of the photo. Make Live Photos easily distinguishable from still photos. The best way to identify a Live Photo is through a hint of movement. Note that there are no built-in Live Photo motion effects, like the one that occurs as you swipe through photos in the full-screen browser of Photos app. Any motion effects like this must be custom designed and implemented. In cases where movement isn’t possible, show a system-provided badge above the photo. This badge can be displayed as an overlay with a shadow or as a solid color without a shadow. A badge variant is also available for situations where a Live Photo appears as a traditional photo. Never include a playback button that could be interpreted as a video playback button. Keep badge placement consistent. If you show a badge, put it in the same location on every photo. Typically, a badge looks best in a corner of a photo. Not supported in watch OS.vision OSIn vision OS, people can view a Live Photo, but they can’t capture one. Resources Developer documentation PHLive Photo — Photo Kit Live Photos Kit JS — Live Photos Kit JSVideos What’s new in camera capture Photos