Social networking giant Facebook has started rolling out support for Apple’s Live Photos for its iOS users. Only a limited number of users are receiving the support initially, with a broader rollout planned early next year. Apple debuted the feature about three months ago. Yahoo’s Tumblr service already supports Live Photos.
Only iPhone 6S and 6S Plus can take Live Photos for now
If your Facebook app for iOS has received the feature, you might be wondering how to post Live Photos on the social networking platform for everyone to see. And then there is a large number of users who might want to know how they can view these moving pictures posted by others. Note that you can capture and post a Live Photo only with an iPhone 6S or 6S Plus, at least for now. To view these photos, you must have an iOS 9-powered iPhones and iPads. Everyone else will see them as still images.
Posting a Live Photo is quite similar to posting a standard photo, with a small difference. Simply open the Facebook app on your iPhone 6S or 6S Plus, tap the camera button next to What’s on your mind?, and then tap Photo/Video. Now select the Live Photos of your choice and hit the Done button. Make sure to tap on the Live box that appears at the bottom right of the photo. If you don’t tap the Live label, only a still image will go up. You will have to tap that label manually for each Live Photo.
Now, if you like, you can add a message or description and hit the Post button to upload your Live Photos to Facebook. These short video-like photos capture 1.5 seconds of video and audio before and after you hit the shutter button. So, make sure that your Live Photo doesn’t include something that you don’t want to make public. Probably that’s the reason Facebook requires users to tap the Live label manually for each photo.
How to view Live Photos on Facebook
The iOS 9 users who want to view Live Photos need to know that these pictures appear as still images by default. But you’ll see a Live Photos icon in the bottom right of each of them. If you use an iPhone 6S or 6S Plus, 3D Touch on the photo to see it playing. If you own any of the older iOS 9 devices, tap and hold the photo.
