How to Turn a Live Photo into a Video or GIF on Your iPhone (Updated for 2020)

You can turn a Live Photo into a video or GIF directly from the Apple Photos app on an iPhone with iOS 11 or later. But in many cases, you may actually want to use a third-party app, such as Lively, to turn your Live Photos into a video or GIF. Using an app is also particularly helpful if you want to share your Live Photo on Instagram; because, in order to do so, it must be turned into a video. Before iOS 11, you could make a Live Photo into a video or GIF using Lively, but you couldn’t simply make Live Photos into GIFs or videos from within the Photos app. Now, there are two video and GIF options on the iPhone: Loop and Bounce. We’re going to cover how to turn Live Photos into a video or GIF with Lively. Here’s how to turn your Live Photos into videos or GIFs on the iPhone.

Related: How to Save a GIF on Your iPhone

How to Turn a Live Photo into a Video or GIF on an iPhone (with the Lively App)

If you've been wondering how to make a Live Photo a video or GIF, there's an app for that! Let's get started using the Lively app to convert a Live Photo to video or GIF format.

1. Open the App Store on your iPhone and download the free app, Lively.
2. Open the app. Give the app permission to access your photos.
3. Tap on the Live Photo you want to turn into a GIF or video.
4. At the top, GIF will be highlighted. This shows you what the Live Photo looks like as a GIF. To save the GIF, tap Export GIF at the bottom, then Save.
5. To turn the Live Photo into a video instead, tap Movie near the top. To save the video, tap Export Movie, then Save.
   
   

This is also a tip on how to share Live Photos on Instagram. Instagram doesn’t currently support sharing Live Photos, which means the easiest way to share a Live Photo on Instagram is to turn it into a video. It's also good to note that a Live Photo Lively converts to video or GIF will include a watermark, which can be removed for a one-time purchase of $2.99.

How to Turn Your Live Photo into a Video or GIF on an iPhone (iOS 11 or Later in the Photos App)

If you don't want to download an app or pay a fee to make a Live Photo into a video or GIF, Apple has you covered. 

1. Open the Photos app.
2. Find the Live Photo you want to turn into a video or GIF and tap on it.
3. Swipe up to reveal Effects.
4. You’ll see Loop, Bounce, and Long Exposure.
   
   
    
5. Tap on Loop and Bounce to see what they look like; choose the one you like best.
6. You can then share your new video or GIF however you’d like.

Top image credit: pkproject / Shutterstock.com