WhatsApp Now Supports Live and Motion Photos Sharing

WhatsApp now lets iPhone and Android users share Live Photos and Motion Photos, which will move and play sound in the app. Until now, WhatsApp automatically downgraded these photos with motion and sound into static photos, which was not ideal for sharing a moment on the fly

Live Photos were first introduced by Apple on the iPhone 6S back in 2015, and they work by capturing a short video that will play when doing a long press on a photo. Google later replicated the feature on its Pixel 2 and named it “Motion Photos,” but it has since become a standard on Android phones.

WhatsApp only added the ability to share photos in “HD” two years ago, but this needs to be turned on manually. It’s not clear in the announcement if that will also be the case for sharing Live Photos and Motion Photos in WhatsApp.

Today, the WhatsApp team also detailed other new features coming to the messaging app, including document scanning on Android (previously available on iPhone) and new chat themes and video call backgrounds created with Meta AI. Group search is also being improved with the ability to search for someone and see the groups you have in common.