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Google Debuts 'Motion Stills' App for Creating GIFs and Movies from Live Photos

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Google today announced the launch of a new app called Motion Stills, which is designed to create unique GIFs from Live Photo images captured with the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, and iPhone SE.

According to Google, the app was built by the Google Research Team and uses the company's video stabilization technology to freeze the background into a still photo or create cinematic panoramas. Multiple clips can also be combined into a montage.

GIFs created by Motion Stills can be shared via apps like Messages or on social media networks.

googlemotionstills-800x471.jpg
We pioneered this technology by stabilizing hundreds of millions of videos and creating GIF animations from photo bursts. Our algorithm uses linear programming to compute a virtual camera path that is optimized to recast videos and bursts as if they were filmed using stabilization equipment, yielding a still background or creating cinematic pans to remove shakiness. [...]

Short videos are perfect for creating loops, so we added loop optimization to bring out the best in your captures. Our approach identifies optimal start and end points, and also discards blurry frames. As an added benefit, this fixes "pocket shots" (footage of the phone being put back into the pocket).
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There are several other apps designed to create GIFs for Live Photos, so Google's offering isn't unique, but it is notable that Google is offering an iOS-only app that works with an iOS-only feature. Google says the information it learns from Motion Stills will perhaps be used to introduce new capabilities into Google Photos in the future.

Aside from making Live Photos viewable on iOS and Mac devices running the latest operating systems and implementing an API for developers to incorporate Live Photos viewing into their apps, Apple has not designed any tools that allow users to manipulate and edit their Live Photos or convert them into videos or GIFs.

Google's new Motion Stills app is available now and can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Article Link: Google Debuts 'Motion Stills' App for Creating GIFs and Movies from Live Photos
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2016/06/07/google-motion-stills-live-photos/
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I really like the Live Photos concept, but we definitely need more things like this to make use of them.
 
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Reactions: skinned66
Is this app a total piece of crap for anyone else? I was actually going to give it an honest shot, because it sounds really neat. But it keeps glitching out for me. When I tap a photo, it's just black, and when trying to scroll photos it just flickers a bunch on a white background and the photos disappear. What the crap? Force quitting doesn't help.
 
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Reactions: axe9920, dotnet and jgelin
I am a huge Apple fan but likely Apple is on the path to being just another company. OS's are extremely buggy, iPad line being fragmented, who knows what new fragmenting they'll add to the iPhone line, competitors have better Apps than stock... Feels like they're turning into Microsoft. The once popular company that turned into we'll do the bare minimum thinking fans and brand reputation will always remain. That battery pack Apple made for the 6/6s with like WTF... seriously zero design or care given.

I guess this is the new Apple.
 
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BeefCake 15 said:
That's a no brainer app, surprised it took that long and not done by Apple already.
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I agree I am very surprised that this wasn't done by Apple yet... Not sure what they were thinking
[doublepost=1465326851][/doublepost]
macduke said:
Is this app a total piece of crap for anyone else? I was actually going to give it an honest shot, because it sounds really neat. But it keeps glitching out for me. When I tap a photo, it's just black, and when trying to scroll photos it just flickers a bunch on a white background and the photos disappear. What the crap? Force quitting doesn't help.
Click to expand...
Works great for me?
 
Apple makes the environment for 3rd Party apps to flourish. There is ZERO need for Apple to make an app like this. Ridiculous responses on here
[doublepost=1465327128][/doublepost]
acctman said:
I am a huge Apple fan but likely Apple is on the path to being just another company. OS's are extremely buggy, iPad line being fragmented, who knows what new fragmenting they'll add to the iPhone line, competitors have better Apps than stock... Feels like they're turning into Microsoft. The once popular company that turned into we'll do the bare minimum thinking fans and brand reputation will always remain. That battery pack Apple made for the 6/6s with like WTF... seriously zero design or care given.

I guess this is the new Apple.
Click to expand...
Blah blah blah...
 
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macduke said:
Is this app a total piece of crap for anyone else? I was actually going to give it an honest shot, because it sounds really neat. But it keeps glitching out for me. When I tap a photo, it's just black, and when trying to scroll photos it just flickers a bunch on a white background and the photos disappear. What the crap? Force quitting doesn't help.
Click to expand...
Works well for me.
 
macduke said:
Is this app a total piece of crap for anyone else? I was actually going to give it an honest shot, because it sounds really neat. But it keeps glitching out for me. When I tap a photo, it's just black, and when trying to scroll photos it just flickers a bunch on a white background and the photos disappear. What the crap? Force quitting doesn't help.
Click to expand...

iCloud support is busted. Try opening your photos in Camera Roll first so they download.
 
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macduke said:
Is this app a total piece of crap for anyone else? I was actually going to give it an honest shot, because it sounds really neat. But it keeps glitching out for me. When I tap a photo, it's just black, and when trying to scroll photos it just flickers a bunch on a white background and the photos disappear. What the crap? Force quitting doesn't help.
Click to expand...
Ok, I think I figured it out. The app glitches out with iCloud Photos. All of the photos I currently have are iCloud versions. Usually iOS keeps full-size versions for the last X amount of photos you've taken. However, I restored from a backup last night because I was on the phone with Apple support trying to troubleshoot a severe iCloud syncing issue that was causing massive amounts of data usage on LTE. When I went to take a new photo that wasn't completely stored in iCloud, it worked fine.
[doublepost=1465327292][/doublepost]
morse said:
iCloud support is busted. Try opening your photos in Camera Roll first so they download.
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Hah, yeah I just figured this out above. Tried it on my boss' 6s. Hopefully they're able to fix this because it's a really neat little app. Would make a great extension too (if something like that is possible for gifs?).
 
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JimmyHook said:
Apple makes the environment for 3rd Party apps to flourish. There is ZERO need for Apple to make an app like this. Ridiculous responses on here
[doublepost=1465327128][/doublepost]
Blah blah blah...
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it's Googles way of throwing a jab at Apple. This is not a Google ecosystem app, it a for IOS User for an iOS missing feature created by Apples #1 competitor. It's laughable at best that Google had to show up Apple by giving it's users a feature Apple will not provide as stock.
 
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macduke said:
Ok, I think I figured it out. The app glitches out with iCloud Photos. All of the photos I currently have are iCloud versions. Usually iOS keeps full-size versions for the last X amount of photos you've taken. However, I restored from a backup last night because I was on the phone with Apple support trying to troubleshoot a severe iCloud syncing issue that was causing massive amounts of data usage on LTE. When I went to take a new photo that wasn't completely stored in iCloud, it worked fine.
[doublepost=1465327292][/doublepost]
Hah, yeah I just figured this out above. Tried it on my boss' 6s. Hopefully they're able to fix this because it's a really neat little app. Would make a great extension too (if something like that is possible for gifs?).
Click to expand...
This appears to be my issue as well. I'm pretty disappointed there are not more options for cropping and GIF reversing. Lively has been a pretty good app for me in this area.
 
JimmyHook said:
Apple makes the environment for 3rd Party apps to flourish. There is ZERO need for Apple to make an app like this. Ridiculous responses on here
[doublepost=1465327128][/doublepost]
Blah blah blah...
Click to expand...

NO NO NO! and... NO!
Being able to share Live Photos with everyone else as GIFs or videos is a very basic function, so basic that it's badly needed. Are you kidding me? The fact that Live Photos (which is a neat feature) can't be shared with anyone that doesn't own an iPhone is simply crazy. This app should be part of Photos, not a 3rd party app.
 
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Reactions: Vanilla35, kolebee, CarpalMac and 7 others
What???? You mean Apple introduced a feature and just left it so someone else can show us how to make the feature better?

When I complain to you guys how Apple software is half-baked, this is what I mean. The perfect example.
 
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This is actually very cool. Made a video of a recent trip's collection of live photos. Some live photos (of fire engines driving by) turned out really cool. Sharing to Hangouts seems to work very well.
 
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