How to Capture a Live Photo in FaceTime on iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra

[MacRumors]

iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra bring Live Photos to FaceTime, allowing you to preserve a special memory while video chatting with friends and family. Whenever you use the new Camera button that's at the bottom of the screen on a FaceTime call, it captures a photo, but don't worry - this can't be done in secret and the other party is always notified when an image is captured.

How to Take a Live Photo in FaceTime

1. Initiate a FaceTime video call.
2. While in the call, press on the camera button that's located at the bottom of the display to the left of the red button for ending a call.
3. Pressing the camera button captures a photo from the camera of the person you're chatting with, so if they have the front-facing camera on, you'll get a full image of their face as if they had taken the photo themselves.
   
4. The Live Photo taken from the FaceTime call can then be found in the Photos app along with the rest of your photos.

Every time you take a Live Photo in FaceTime, the person on the other end of the video call receives a message letting them know that a Live Photo was taken, so capturing an image during FaceTime isn't something that can be done in secret. FaceTime Live Photos also don't capture audio.

Disable Live Photos in FaceTime

If you don't want people to be able to take a Live Photo when FaceTiming with you, it's easy to disable. Here's how:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Scroll down to the "FaceTime" option and tap it.
3. Toggle off "FaceTime Live Photos."
   

With this setting toggled off, people you chat with will not be able to use the Live Photo in FaceTime feature. You can still take Live Photos of others, however, as long as their setting isn't toggled off.

FaceTime Live Photos only works when both FaceTime participants are running iOS 11 and have the option to enable/disable the feature. If someone isn't using iOS 11 and you attempt to capture a photo, you'll get a warning that all parties need to be running the new software.

FaceTime Live Photos on the Mac

FaceTime Live Photos are also available on Macs running macOS High Sierra. Capturing an image is done by clicking on the camera button, and toggling off Live Photos can be done on a Mac by opening the FaceTime app, choosing Preferences from the menu bar, and deselecting "Allow Live Photos to be captured during Video calls."

Article Link: How to Capture a Live Photo in FaceTime on iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra

 

[heov]

edit: post is moot since suggested feature exists

 

[jclo]

Instead of notifying the user they took a pic, why not allow them to ask first? i.e. allow screenshots to occur in this call.

Or at least a "private" mode that bans screenshots, kind of how in Hangouts you can turn off history/off the record. Of course there are obvious ways around this, but it's nice to still have this feature as it'll let all parties be aware that screenshots are not allowed. So in a worst case situation, if someone goes to court over this, you'd have at least some expectation of privacy in your argument.

There's a toggle to disallow them all together in the Settings app.

 

[skier8689]

My FaceTime Live Photos are not saving. Is anyone else experiencing this? Sometimes I'll find one or two in Photos but most of the time, nothing.

 

[Apple blogger]

What happens when one has it toggled on and the other has it toggled off?

 

[jclo]

What happens when one has it toggled on and the other has it toggled off?

Live Photos have to be enabled in FaceTime on both devices for the feature to work. If someone has it disabled, neither person can use it.

 

[Zolla]

My FaceTime Live Photos are not saving. Is anyone else experiencing this? Sometimes I'll find one or two in Photos but most of the time, nothing.

Me too!! None of my FaceTime livephotos are saving on my iPhone7. And no FaceTime livephotos are saving on my girlfriend’s iPhone6 too.. I have tried to disable-enable livephotos on FaceTime settings but with no effect. Tried to reboot both iPhones. I have read of others having this issue around the net, but I haven’t seen any solution. FaceTime still saying that you have taken the photo but there is no photo on myphotos, nor in my albums. Never been a beta tester. I have upgraded to iOS11 both iPhones when iOS11 came out directly from iOS10 last update. I think we will have to wait for a fix...

 

[skier8689]

Me too!! None of my FaceTime livephotos are saving on my iPhone7. And no FaceTime livephotos are saving on my girlfriend’s iPhone6 too.. I have tried to disable-enable livephotos on FaceTime settings but with no effect. Tried to reboot both iPhones. I have read of others having this issue around the net, but I haven’t seen any solution. FaceTime still saying that you have taken the photo but there is no photo on myphotos, nor in my albums. Never been a beta tester. I have upgraded to iOS11 both iPhones when iOS11 came out directly from iOS10 last update. I think we will have to wait for a fix...

I’m glad I’m not alone. Good to know you didn’t do beta. I was using the betas and i thought maybe that was why. Eagerly awaiting a fix because I really like this feature! Thanks for your reply

 

[Apple blogger]

Live Photos have to be enabled in FaceTime on both devices for the feature to work. If someone has it disabled, neither person can use it.

Oh! That's so bad! Thanx for the update.

 

[Zolla]

I’m glad I’m not alone. Good to know you didn’t do beta. I was using the betas and i thought maybe that was why. Eagerly awaiting a fix because I really like this feature! Thanks for your reply

Okay, I've upgraded to iOS 11.0.1 and now it works fine !!
That was a bug, and now it's been fixed.

 

[skier8689]

Okay, I've upgraded to iOS 11.0.1 and now it works fine !!
That was a bug, and now it's been fixed.

Nice! 11.0.1 has not fixed the issue for me . What's weird is they are also not saving on my Mac, running High Sierra.

*EDIT* Just fixed the problem on iPhone and Mac by disabling and reenabling FaceTime! Wooooo

 

[Sashaj]

My FaceTime Live Photos are not saving. Is anyone else experiencing this? Sometimes I'll find one or two in Photos but most of the time, nothing.

I’m having the exact problem and so are my friends. I literally took like 50 pictures for 7 of them to actually show up in my camera roll. Have you figure anything yet?