Google has updated its software so that Live Photos taken with your iPhone are also transferred as part of the iOS to Android migration.
If you’re like me, you keep Live Photos enabled on your iPhone as a sort of insurance policy against missed moments. In the past, switching to Android meant losing your Live Photos, but that’s no longer the case. That’s because Google has made switching from iOS easier by updating both Pixel’s new Android setup tool and the standalone Data Transfer Tool app, now rebranded as Android Switch, with support for transferring Live Photos from iPhones.
The setup tool, which debuted on the Pixel 9 series earlier this year, permits Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro owners to migrate data from their old phone anytime (instead of at the beginning of the setup process), use an Express option for faster activation, transfer eSIMs, etc.
It now supports Live Photos migration. Google has implemented the same feature in its standalone Android Switch app, available on Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store. Paul Dunlop, Android’s Product Manager for Onboarding and Switching, revealed on social media that Live Photos support is available through Android Switch on all Pixels.
The feature will soon be available on other Android devices. “Right now, Live Photos is available through Android Switch on all Pixels,” he wrote last week. “We’ll be expanding access to the feature over the next few weeks to more devices.” He first mentioned this feature in an August 23 post on Threads, and now it seems to have finished rolling out to all Pixels.
Your Live Photos will now carry over as part of the iOS to Android migration. Because we haven’t yet used the refreshed tool on our devices, we are unable to tell you how exactly Live Photos are transferred over (Android has a similar feature of its own, called Motion Photos).
Available on iPhone 6s and newer, Live Photos liven up your still photographs by capturing 1.5 seconds of video before and after you hit the shutter button, along with sound. Apple encodes Live Photos assets using the HEIFF format as a single .HEIC file. The built-in Photos app animates a Live Photo’s image portion with movement and sound.
When sharing a Live Photo to an Apple device that doesn’t support Live Photos, the still image and footage are delivered as two separate files. Sharing a Live Photo with someone using Android or a similar non-Apple platform will send a still image instead.
I’m just speculating, but Google’s Android setup tool and the Android Switch app probably converts your Live Photos into Motion Photos. Doing so would let you open a converted Live Photo in any Android gallery app which supports the Motion Photos format. Otherwise, transferring Live Photos as separate images and videos wouldn’t make much sense.
Source: Paul Dunlop via Android Police
