In the past, if you ever wanted to tweet the animated Live Photo captured by your iPhone or iPad, you had to convert the image to a GIF. That’s now a thing of the past, as Twitter will do the conversion for you automatically!
Capture a Live Photo on Your iPhone or iPad
Before you can tweet a Live Photo, you’re going to need to enable the Live Photo feature within the iPhone’s or iPad’s camera app and then snap an image. If you already have a Live Photo that you want to share, you can skip to the next section.
Begin by opening the “Camera” app. Use Apple’s Spotlight Search if you can’t find the app on your home screen.
Next, ensure that the Live icon found in the top-right corner isn’t crossed out. If it is, tap on the button so that it looks like the below image (1).
With the feature enabled, tap on the shutter button (2) to capture a Live Photo.
RELATED: How to Take Awesome Live Photos with Your iPhone
Tweet the Live Photo as a GIF from Your iPhone or iPad
Now that you have your Live Photo, it’s time to tweet it. Although we’re going to show you how to embed and share the GIF as a new tweet, you can also follow these steps to send the Live Photo in “Retweets With Comment,” replies, and DMs.
Start by opening the “Twitter” app. Again, use Spotlight Search to locate the social media app if it isn’t quickly accessible.
From the Home tab, tap on the compose button. Its icon is in the bottom-right corner and features a feather encased in a blue circle.
Next, locate and tap on your Live Photo in the quick-access image bar. You should see the Live icon overlayed on the thumbnail.
If you can’t find the Live Photo, select the Gallery button, and then tap on your desired image.
With the Live Photo loaded into the tweet preview, tap on the “GIF” button found in the bottom-left corner of the thumbnail. The Live Photo will be converted to a GIF and will play through once. You can select the Play button that appears when it stops to see the animation again.
Type out a quick message to go along with your GIF and then hit the “Tweet” button.
RELATED: How to Convert Live Photos to Videos or GIFs on Your iPhone