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Live Photo vs Live Wallpaper — What's the Difference?

The two terms get mixed up constantly, and knowing the difference saves you a lot of confusion when making an animated phone screen.

Live Photo (Apple's format)

A Live Photo is an Apple-specific format: a still photo paired with up to 5 seconds of video, stored together in your Photos library. On the lock screen, it animates when you press and hold. Live Photos only exist in the Apple ecosystem — Android phones can't use them, and no website can generate a true Live Photo file (an iOS app like intoLive does the final conversion).

Live wallpaper (the general term)

A live wallpaper is any animated phone background. On Android it's usually a short video played by a wallpaper app (or a built-in feature on Samsung and Xiaomi phones). On iPhone, the live wallpaper is a Live Photo set as the lock screen. So: every iPhone live wallpaper is a Live Photo, but "live wallpaper" covers Android too.

Which do you need?

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