For these hidden features alone, you’ll still want to use Live Photos on your iPhone

By Ameen Akbar On Jul 10, 2026

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Your iPhone has plenty of features you can disable without any problems. As far as we are concerned, Live Photos is not one of them. The extra seconds you capture often turn out to be more valuable than you think.

Moving photos

By now, every iPhone user is familiar with the principle of Live Photos. Around the moment the picture is taken, a short video is recorded – a few seconds before and after you take your snapshot. This creates a moving photo with sound, which you play by briefly holding your finger on the image. Much more fun than a static picture frozen in time.

However, some people turn off Live Photos, for example because they consider it nothing more than a gimmick, or because the feature always uses some extra storage space. That is a shame, because Live Photos has a few hidden options that you really don’t want to miss.

Choose another main photo

Taking a good photo is a matter of timing, and that often goes just wrong. You press the shutter too early, or too late, someone closes their eyes just then… a Live Photo gives you a second chance, because you can choose a different moment from the series of images as your main photo.

Open the Live Photo in Photos and tap the Edit button (with the three lines).
Tap the ‘Live’ button.
Drag the slider, looking for a better moment.
Release and tap ‘Set as main photo’.
Finish with ‘Ready’.

Apply a playful effect

You can also turn a Live Photo into a short, playful video by applying an effect.

Tap the Live button at the top of a Live Photo.
Choose one of the effects. With Repeat , the clip is played over and over again, as if it were an endless animation. Bounce plays the recording forward first and then backward, causing the movement to constantly go back and forth. This produces surprisingly fun results, especially with jumping children, splashing water, dancing people, or a pet making a crazy movement.

The final effect, Long Exposure , is the odd one out. It actually turns your moving Live Photo into a still image. As a result, moving parts become soft and fluid, while the rest of the photo—the part that didn’t move—remains sharp. This is how you give photos of water features, for example, a boost.