Apple Live Photos vs Samsung Motion Photos: here are the differences

With the introduction of the iPhone 6s and iOS 9, Apple brought in Live Photos – the phone's camera records a few frames before and after a picture is taken, giving the user the ability to make photos "come to life" when browsing through them later. Shooting Live Photos is limited to the iPhone 6s, 6s Plus, and the new SE, but any iDevice with iOS 9 or later can view them. On the 3D Touch-capable iPhones, the user has to press on the photo for it to "play", while on older devices, activation is done with tap-and-hold.

Samsung, naturally, responded to Apple's Live Photos by adding a new "Motion Photo" feature to the camera software in its Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge flagships, which is very similar to what the iPhone does. Still, there are a few subtle differences in how the two different systems operate, and we will explore them here.

Apple Live Photos	Samsung Motion Photos
Records frames before and after picture	Records only the frames before the picture
Records sound	No sound
No native way to export	Animation can be exported to video file

Samsung's Motion Photos are a bit easier to share

When it comes to sharing the Galaxy S7's Motion Photos, you have a choice of either sending the still image — the actual photo you wanted to take — or exporting all the frames as an .mp4 video file. Additionally, while watching a Motion Photo on your phone, you can freeze-frame the playback at any point and capture said frame as a separate picture — in case you end up liking one of the alternate frames better than the one that you actually pressed the shutter on.