Google parent Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) released a new app for iOS called Motion Stills earlier this week and it has so far received much hype because it has led to significant improvement to the Live Photos feature from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL).
Motion Stills can only be used in Live Photos in the iPhone SE, iPhone 6S, and the iPhone 6S Plus handsets. The new app makes it possible to transform Live Photos into a form that is more useful and can easily be shared. The feature from Apple did not get much traction before Google’s app saved the day because the images were shaky and there were very few sharing options.
Motion Stills introduces image stabilization to enhance a photo’s appearance. It also freezes the background in the images to make the overall appearance much better. Also, the Google app converts Live Photos into .gif form as well as videos that can easily be shared on social platforms. It also allows users to select a wide variety of images from their gallery.
Users with the supported handsets can activate Live Photos in the camera app to compile images recorded in a span of three seconds. Live Photos is also limited to iPhones, iPod Touch and iPads running iOS 9 or a Mac computer running the latest OS X version. It is also available in the latest versions of Apple TV and Apple Watch. Some of the apps that can harness the power of Live Photos include iOS apps for Google Photos, Tumblr, Facebook, photo apps and iMessage. The support is also extended to the latter two in OS X.
Apple had released an API tool for developers to create support for Live Photos in their apps though currently no built-in tools are available for converting live photos into different formats or making edits. Motion Stills, therefore, seals some of these loopholes even though a few bugs have been associated with it. Either way, it is seen by many as currently the best available option for Live Photos.