How To Do A Timed Photo On Iphone

GIFs and videos are a mainstay of social media. These days it's rarer to see a still photo online, and the ease with which you can add movement and filter effects to your photos has seen a proliferation of these animated images online.

So what if you want to animate a still photo, adding movement to a stationary moment in time? Well, there's an app for that. Actually, there are many apps for that. Here are the best apps you can use to animate photos on Android and iPhone.

1. Motionleap

Motionleap is the first app on our list, and for good reason. This app is one of the top-reviewed, with over 250,000 starred ratings in the Play Store, averaging over four stars.

Motionleap is free to use, although there's a Pro and subscription version, too. Unlike a lot of the other photo animators out there, it doesn't put a watermark over your image when you download it to your phone.

The app's primary purpose is animating still photos and turning them into short, looping videos. You do this by programming directional cues into your image by dragging your thumb across the screen.

You can also freeze parts of your image, and apply filters on top of your picture to create an atmosphere within your image.

Unfortunately, Motionleap saves your animated still photos in video format unless you've paid for a Pro account. So if you're looking to convert animated photos into GIFs, here's how to convert a video into a GIF.

Download: Motionleap for Android | iOS (Free, premium version available)

2. Werble

Werble acts in the same way as Motionleap. Its primary purpose is to animate your photos, and while the basic account is free, in-app purchases are also available. Most of Werble's animations are done through the filter effects that you can add on top of your pictures.

An upside to Werble is that it automatically saves these pictures as GIFs, so they're ready to use online. The downside? To remove the watermark that they place on your image, you need to pay. That watermark is definitely big enough to be annoying.

Download: Werble for iOS (Free, in-app purchases available)

3. GIPHY

You probably know GIPHY as the mega search engine for all things related to GIFs.

As the premier place where you can upload and find reaction memes for anything under the sun, GIPHY has a mobile app too: one that allows you to create your own GIFs and animate photos. You can upload them by using the built-in animation tools on the platform.

We really love GIPHY for its ease-of-use and intuitive interface. It includes a sticker maker (available for iPhone X and later), and you can also add captions to your animated photos or shoot your own short videos. GIPHY is definitely worth a try.

Download: GIPHY for Android | iOS (Free)

4. ImgPlay

ImgPlay is another app you can use to animate photos. Think of it like a mashup between Motionleap and Werble. It creates ready-to-use animated photos for the web, and has advanced, easy-to-understand controls. Unfortunately, it also sticks a watermark on your image—one that you can't remove unless you upgrade to a full account.

In ImgPlay, the process of making animated photos and GIFs can be done a couple of different ways. You can lay out still photographs side-by-side, use burst photos, or videos.

Download: ImgPlay for Android | iOS (Free, premium version available)

5. Movepic

Movepic is similar to Motionleap in that it animates photos, but a large chunk of this animation can be done with its built-in overlays and filters.

The downside is that you can't remove the watermark without upgrading to a VIP account. Movepic also automatically saves your pictures as a movie file instead of a GIF. Despite this, it's still worth checking out.

Download: Movepic for Android | iOS (Free, premium version available)

6. StoryZ

Despite its boring interface, StoryZ is one of the best apps on this list. It works with still photographs to animate them, and it does this through programmed paths of movement, color filters, and overlays—a lot of which are free and really amazing. It saves your files automatically as GIFs, too.

One of the best things about StoryZ is that you can remove the watermark from your image if you simply watch a quick ad before you save the file. This one's definitely a keeper if you want to animate photos.

Download: StoryZ for Android | iOS (Free, premium version available)

7. Photo Bender

Photo Bender is an Android-specific app that allows you to digitally warp your images to animate photos. You can do this by coloring your image, bending it, stretching it, and using brushes. You can then export your photographs as MP4s, GIFs, JPEGs, and PNGs.

While this app doesn't have as many ratings as some of the others on this list, it is highly rated, so it's still worth a look.

Download: Photo Bender for Android (Free)

8. VIMAGE 3D

There's a reason why VIMAGE won a Google Play award in 2018. It can create some really fantastic-looking animated images in just a few taps. There's a wide variety of filters, animations, and sounds to choose from to bring your photos to life.

Want to change the sky in your photo to some sunny clouds? No problem. You don't even need to select the sky because VIMAGE automatically detects and replaces it for you.

Like most of these apps, you do need to pay to remove the watermark, get access to the full effects library, and the ability to export your images in up to 2560p resolution.

Download: VIMAGE 3D for Android | iOS (Free, premium version available)

9. Zoetropic

If you want to animate your photo within minutes, Zoetropic is for you. Though its feature list isn't as extensive as other apps we've covered, it does the job and it does it well.

To begin, you choose your photo, then select motion points. Next, you stabilize or mask the areas you wish to keep still. Finally, you choose your animations and overlays. You can also add tags and change colors.

Unfortunately, the number of effects you can access on a free account is quite limited. Nevertheless, you might find what you're looking for if you need a quick way to animate a picture.

Download: Zoetropic for Android | iOS (Free, premium version available)

10. Lumyer

The final app on our list is Lumyer, which lets you add hundreds of different effects to your pictures to animate them. Whether you want subtle weather effects or sparkle, seasonal animations for Halloween and Christmas, or all-out scene changes like appearing on a rollercoaster, Lumyer can do it.

Be aware, though: paying to remove the watermark doesn't grant you access to all of the effects. There are multiple in-app purchases to contend with. If you're okay with that, Lumyer is a good choice, but otherwise you may prefer one of our other photo animation app suggestions.

Download: Lumyer for Android | iOS (Free, in-app purchases available)

Animate Photos to Make Them More Exciting

Now that we've run through some great apps that can animate your photos, you can choose the ones you want to try out. All of them do roughly the same thing, so you should pick the ones which you think will work for you.

Gone are the days when you needed a powerful desktop computer to edit your photos and videos. Now you can do it all from your smartphone to great effect.

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