You can now upload Live Photos from iOS to Twitter

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Twitter Logo (Image credit: Twitter)

What you need to know

  • Twitter has added support for Live Photos on iOS.
  • Uploaded Live Photos will be converted into GIFs.
  • It has taken the social media company four years to add the feature.

Twitter has, after years of waiting, finally announced support for Live Photos in iOS. Reported by Macstories, if you now add a Live Photo to a tweet using your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, you will see an option to use the actual Live Photo instead of uploading a still image.

Twitter is accomplishing this by converting your Live Photo into a GIF. When you add a Live Photo to a tweet, a new GIF button appears at the bottom left corner of the Live Photo. It is off by default but by simply tapping it, Twitter will convert your Live Photo into a GIF and tweet it out. Leaving the GIF button grayed out will upload a still image.

The company announced the new feature for iOS in a truly hilarious tweet on its main account on Twitter.

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Live Photos was first released as a feature in iOS 9 and debuted alongside the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus. Apple created a new file type that allows you to see a snapshot of time around your photo and, while it may look like a video, it takes up significantly less space. It has, for the last four years, lacked adoption on many popular social media sites, including Twitter. Today, the company has finally brought the feature to its network, saying that it is time to "Let your Live Photos live".

Joe Wituschek
Joe Wituschek

Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.