Live Photos debuted in 2015 alongside the iPhone 6S, and they are easy to create because the process is exactly the same as shooting any other kind of photo. Live Photos are just like regular photos but on steroids. When you take a Live Photo on your iPhone, it captures 1.5 seconds of video both before and after you tap the shutter. The result is not only your picture but also the scene enhanced by movement and sound as you tap and hold the image on your device.

But of course, there are downsides. Live Photos in their original live form can be viewed only by other iOS users. To share your Live Photos with anyone else, you can convert them to a video or GIF. Otherwise, when Live Photos are shared outside the Apple ecosystem, they revert to static images. That sucks, right?

Live Photos also take up more storage space than other photos, so making a video out of them is is a great idea because you’ll be able to remove this large file from your iPhone.

To find all your Live Photos, launch the Photos app on your iPhone and tap the Albums icon. That will lead you to an album called Live Photos, where you’ll see all the photos shot while the Live Photo option was enabled. If you want to preserve the movement and ambient audio of your Live Photos to view elsewhere, you need to convert them into videos. I will show you how to do that.

How to save an iPhone live photo as a video?

In iOS 13, 14, and 15, an option in the Photos app — Save As Video — allows you to save a Live Photo as a video with a single tap, no third-party app needed.

Tap on the Photos app on your iPhone to open it.

Select a Live Photo you want to convert into a video.

Tap the Share button on the bottom left corner.

Scroll down and choose Save as Video. That’s it. Your Live Photo is now saved as a video and you can share it with other (not just iOS) users.