How to Send Live & Motion Photos on Telegram
Share animated camera memories from Apple iOS and Android devices without losing motion, with support for Live play, seamless Loop, and Bounce playback modes.
On most mobile chat applications, sending an Apple Live Photo or Android Motion Photo strips away the moving video component, flattening your dynamic snapshot into a lifeless static JPEG. Telegram breaks cross-platform vendor lock-in by natively extracting the motion video track from your camera capture. Whether sending from an iPhone or a Samsung/Pixel device, Telegram packages the media into universal, high-efficiency micro-video containers viewable by every Telegram user on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Linux, and Web.
Live (Single Play)
Plays the 3-second motion sequence once upon user tap, then settles gracefully into the high-resolution primary still photo.
Loop (Continuous)
Converts the captured camera motion into an infinitely looping ambient animation, perfect for waterfalls, city lights, and crowd scenes.
Bounce (Boomerang)
Plays the motion sequence forward and immediately reverses it back, creating a seamless, captivating visual rhythm without jump cuts.
Live & Motion Photo Playback Studio
Test how Telegram transforms camera capture into Live, Loop, and Bounce animations.
Cross-Platform Transcoding & Container Architecture
Apple Live Photos bundle a static HEIC photo and an associated QuickTime MOV track. Android Motion Photos package micro-video MP4 streams within JPEG XMP tags (GCamera:MicroVideoOffset). Previously, sending an Apple Live Photo to an Android recipient resulted in a static snapshot. Telegram solves this by extracting the 1080p 60 FPS motion clip on the sender device and transcoding it into a unified MTProto animated document container with synchronized poster metadata. Both operating systems can render the resulting animation natively without proprietary codecs.
| Playback Feature | Native Apple Photos | Native Android Camera | Telegram Unified Delivery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cross-OS Compatibility | Apple ecosystem only | Android ecosystem only | 100% Universal across all platforms |
| Bounce / Boomerang Mode | Supported in Apple Photos | Limited third-party app support | Native 1-tap preset in media editor |
| Full Still Resolution | Full 12MP / 48MP primary sensor | Full sensor resolution | Preserved as high-res cover frame |
| Bandwidth Optimization | Sends uncompressed MOV file | Embeds full MP4 into JPEG bytes | Compressed H.264/MPEG-4 AVC stream |
How to Send Live & Motion Photos on Telegram
Select Live Photo from Media Gallery
Tap the attachment paperclip and open your photo library. Live Photos and Motion Photos feature a small circular target badge in the corner. Tap the image to open the media editor preview.
Choose Your Playback Style
Tap the concentric circles icon (Live/Motion button) at the top of the editor. Select between Live, Loop, or Bounce. You can also trim the motion clip timeline handles to isolate the best sequence.
Dispatch with Captions & Formatting
Add text captions, spoiler masks, or drawing annotations as desired, then tap Send. The recipient can tap and hold to experience the motion or enjoy smooth continuous looping.
