How to Turn a Live Photo into a Boomerang

A Boomerang plays a moment forward, then backward. A jump returns to the ground, a wave retreats, and the same short action can repeat. You can make one from the motion inside a Live Photo without recording the scene again.

Forward · compressed clip

3.00 s · 480 × 270 · 135 KB

Boomerang · forward and back

5.83 s · 480 × 270 · 226 KB

Play comparisonDownload compressed clip

Prepare the Live Photo

Open the Boomerang maker with a LIVP package, the original still and MOV pair, or just the MOV video. A HEIC or JPEG on its own contains no usable motion for this tool. If your Live Photo is only in iPhone Photos, first export its video, or use Photos on Mac to export the unmodified original.

Apple explains that exporting an unmodified Live Photo on Mac produces an image and a video. Keep those originals together. In Livp you may select the MOV alone; the still is not needed for the Boomerang export.

Make the forward-and-back loop

1. Open your file in the Boomerang tool.
2. Choose Boomerang, not Reverse. The full video is selected by default; adjust the start and end if needed (at least 0.2 seconds).
3. Choose 0.5×, 1× or 2× speed. Start with 1× and a clearly visible movement.
4. Select GIF or, if supported by your browser, MP4. For MP4 choose one to three cycles.
5. Generate the preview, check the turnaround, and download the result.

Use a short action with a clear direction: a pet turning its head, a hand waving or water falling. If the subject hardly moves, a longer selection will not necessarily make the effect stronger. Shorten the moment around the action instead.

Bounce on iPhone or a downloadable Boomerang?

In iPhone Photos, open the Live Photo, open the Live effects menu and choose Bounce. Apple describes Bounce as forward-and-back playback. This is convenient when you want the effect in your photo library.

Use the browser tool when you need a separate GIF or MP4 and control over the selected range, speed and video cycle count. It exports a new animation; it does not update the original Live Photo or create an animated lock-screen wallpaper.

Choose GIF or MP4

GIF repeats continuously and has no audio. It works where animated images are accepted, but its limited color palette may change gradients and fine detail. MP4 contains the chosen number of cycles and can be easier to share as a video. A player may repeat it during preview even though the downloaded video contains a finite number of cycles.

Both outputs from this tool are silent, resampled at up to 12 frames per second, with at most 60 sampled frames across the whole selection (longer selections have a lower frame rate) and re-encoded with a longest edge of up to 480 pixels. Keep the original for full quality. MP4 recording requires a compatible browser and the tab must remain visible.

If you only want backward playback

Choose Reverse instead. It plays the last selected frame first, without the forward half. See how to reverse a video or Live Photo. If you only need the unchanged movie, use Live Photo to video; for an ordinary forward-playing animation, use Live Photo to GIF.