Summary

  • You could soon transfer Live Photos from iPhone to Android with Google’s Data Transfer Tool.
  • Google will convert the Live Photos to Motion Photos during the transfer process.
  • Currently, you can back up iPhone’s Live Photos to Google Photos to preserve them.



Live Photos is one of the best camera-centric features of the iPhone. It brings your photos to life by capturing 1.5 seconds of footage before and after pressing the shutter button. Android also supports a similar feature called Motion Photos, though it’s not available on all flagship phones. The problem is that when migrating from iPhone to Android, you lose access to all “live” photos. During the transfer process, the pictures are converted into regular images, with the 3-second footage being axed. Google appears to be working on a fix for this problem.

image of Google photos logo overlaid on an image of blurred trees

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An APK teardown from Android Authority details that Google’s Data Transfer Tool could soon support transferring Live Photos from iPhone to Android. The app will apparently convert all Live Photos from your iPhone into Motion Photos during the transfer process, ensuring they playback correctly on your new Android phone.

Seemingly, Google will convert all photos to JPG and pair the associated .MOV video file with it during the transfer process. If you have gigabytes of pictures, the migration can take a while to complete.

Right now, your best option to preserve Live Photos on your iPhone is to back them up to Google Photos. You can then playback the short video associated with the picture in Google Photos on your phone or the web. However, when you download them on your Android, they are saved as regular images.

The problem with this method is that it requires you to use Google Photos to back up your photos. Plus, you must also have enough free space in your Google account for the backup.



Live Photos and Motion Photos must co-exist

Once Google updates its Data Transfer Tool with Live Photos support, it will be easier for iPhone users to switch to Android, as they won’t have to worry about losing access to them.

Given how useful Live Photos and Motion Photos are, Apple and Google should work together to ensure their implementation works across both platforms. This will ensure that anyone migrating from Android to iPhone (or vice versa) won’t lose access to the small 3-second clip their phone recorded with every picture they clicked.