Facebook Now Supports Apple Live Photos

 
Heads up, Facebook users: If you're scrolling through your News Feed and click on an image and it starts to move, rest assured that your eyes are not playing tricks on you. What you may actually be looking at is an Apple Live Photo.

Cupertino in September promised that its new moving image format would be viewable on Facebook before the end of the year, and now it's actually happening. The social network on Monday began rolling out support for Apple Live Photos, a Facebook spokesperson told TCMall.
At this point, Facebook is testing the feature globally with a small percentage of iPhone 6s and 6s Plus users, but the company plans to expand availability next year. "We're excited to support Apple's new Live Photos," the spokesperson said.
According to a report from TechCrunch, iPhone 6s and 6s Plus users selected to participate in the test will be able to share their Live Photos on Facebook from the company's iOS app, and anyone with a device running iOS 9 will be able to view them.

For the uninitiated, Apple first introduced Live Photos in September as one of the standout features of its latest iPhones. Here's how it works: Whenever you take a photo with the feature enabled, your iOS device will also capture a three-second video surrounding the time said photo is taken.

"At the heart of a Live Photo is a beautiful 12-megapixel photo," reads Apple's description. "But together with that photo are the moments just before and after it was taken, captured with movement and sound."
As PCMag's Sascha Segan pointed out earlier this year, the idea behind Live Photos isn't exactly new. HTC rolled out a similar feature called Zoe back in 2013, but it the company couldn't get Facebook, Instagram, or other major players to support the format, so it never took off. With Facebook's support, Live Photos may "sweep across the Internet like Zoes never did," Segan predicted.