Sharing Apple Live Photos: Our Memory Book

An Apple Live Photo captures a moment that moves — the still image plus a short clip of motion and sound from the instant before and after the shutter. Our Memory Book can preserve that, showing the still with a LIVE badge that comes alive when you play it.

What you need to know first

A Live Photo is really two files: the still image (.HEIC or .JPEG) and a separate short video (.MOV). Most ways of sharing a photo quietly drop the motion and hand over only the still — that includes the normal “photo” send in Messages, WhatsApp, and the iOS photo picker. To keep a Live Photo alive here, the contributor has to send both files.

Only the still arrived? That’s fine. It still becomes a beautiful ordinary photo — it simply won’t move. Nothing breaks; you just don’t get the motion.

How to share both files

From a Mac: open Photos, select the Live Photo, then File → Export → Export Unmodified Original. This hands you the still and the .MOV together — attach both to an email or upload both on the web form.
By email: attach both the image and the .MOV as files in the same message.
On a chat app (WhatsApp, iMessage, Telegram): send each file as a document / file rather than as a picture. Sending “as a photo” is exactly what strips the motion.
On the web form: add the still with Add Photo and the motion with Add Video in the same submission.

When both files land on the same submission and share the same filename (Apple names them as a pair, e.g. IMG_1234.HEIC and IMG_1234.MOV), we automatically combine them into a single Live Photo — not two separate entries.

What it looks like

The still shows a small LIVE badge.
On a computer: hover over the photo to play the motion; move away to return to the still.
On a phone or tablet: press and hold to play, release to return to the still — the same gesture as in Apple Photos.
If your device is set to reduce motion, nothing autoplays; tap the badge to play instead.
Live Photos appear in the photo gallery and count as photos throughout your book.

In a printed book

A PDF can’t animate, so an exported Live Photo prints as the still with a LIVE badge and a small “scan to play” QR code that opens the moving version on the web.

Dates and privacy

The still and the motion both keep their original capture date and location, just like any photo, so your Live Photo lands on the timeline on the day it actually happened.

Plan requirement

Because the motion is a short video, keeping it depends on your book being able to accept video. Without video, the still is kept and shown as an ordinary photo, and the motion is not retained. See which plans include video.