Last updated: August 2026

What it actually is

Motion Photo is Samsung's name for the same idea Apple calls a Live Photo. With it enabled, the camera is quietly recording before you press the shutter. When you do press, it keeps a short clip of the moment either side and stores it inside the picture file — one photo, with a video hidden in it.

That storage choice matters more than it sounds. Because there is only one file, the movement travels with the photo when you copy it, back it up or send it to someone. Apple's approach uses two separate files, which is exactly why iPhone Live Photos so often arrive somewhere as ordinary stills.

Turning it on

  1. Open Samsung's Camera app, Photo mode

    It has to be Samsung's own camera. A third-party camera app will not have this feature.

  2. Find the Motion Photo icon

    A rounded square with a small play triangle inside, in the row of icons along the top. On some One UI versions that row is collapsed behind an arrow, and on others the toggle sits in the camera's own Settings screen instead — Samsung has moved it around between releases.

  3. Tap it so it lights up

    Enabled, the icon fills in or changes colour. It stays on for every photo until you turn it off again.

  4. Hold steady a moment longer than usual

    The clip covers both sides of the shutter press, so lowering the phone straight after the shot ends up in the recording.

Playing one back

Open the picture in Samsung Gallery. A View motion photo control appears near the bottom; tap it and the clip plays. Gallery also marks these photos with a small badge so you can pick them out while scrolling.

In Google Photos the gesture is different: press and hold the photo and it plays for as long as you hold. Same file, two apps, two habits.

Turning it off

Tap the same icon again so it is no longer highlighted. Photos from then on are ordinary stills.

Two things worth knowing before you do:

  • Photos you already took keep their clips. Turning the feature off is not retroactive.
  • The setting is per camera app, not per photo. There is no way to shoot one Motion Photo and then one still without flipping the switch each time.

Storage: the honest answer

Motion Photos are considerably bigger than plain ones — commonly two to four times the size, depending on how long the clip is and how much is moving in it. On a phone that is already short on space this adds up quickly.

If you want the feature but not the bill, the practical habit is to turn it on when something is actually going to move — people, pets, weather — and leave it off for documents, receipts and screenshots of things.

Sharing one

Because the video lives inside the file, a Motion Photo survives far better than an iPhone Live Photo does. But not everywhere:

  • Sending the file itself — email, Drive, a cable, Quick Share: the movement survives.
  • Google Photos link or shared album: survives.
  • Most chat apps and social networks: the still arrives, the motion does not. They re-compress uploads and throw away anything they do not recognise.
  • Anywhere stubborn: export a GIF or save it as a video instead.

If your Galaxy does not have it

Motion Photo is missing from some older and entry-level Galaxy models, and it exists only inside Samsung's own Camera app. If the icon simply is not there, it is not hidden in a menu somewhere — the feature is not on that phone.

An app can add it. What matters when choosing one is what it saves: many so-called live photo apps leave you with a photo and a separate video file, which no gallery will ever join back together. Live Camera writes the same embedded Motion Photo format Samsung does, so Samsung Gallery and Google Photos play its captures natively.