How To: YSK That You Can Mute Live Photos So Nobody Has to Listen to Them

YSK That You Can Mute Live Photos So Nobody Has to Listen to Them

Live Photos are a great way to relive moments beyond a simple still image since you get up to 1.5 seconds of video before and after the shot. Of course, your iPhone doesn't just capture motion during a Live Photo — it also records audio. And that audio portion may not be something you want to share.

If you tend to share Live Photos when you have your Ring/Silent switch set to silent mode, you won't hear any audio when you press down on the image to play it. Even with the volume all of the way up, Live Photos audio won't play. You may never even notice that sound isn't something you want to share. So this serves as a notice of sorts: unmute your iPhone and listen before sharing Live Photos!

Now, if you're unhappy with a Live Photo's recorded audio but still like the image, you can remove the sounds before sharing. In iOS 13 or later, with the Live Photo selected in Photos, tap "Edit," then hit the Live Photo icon in the toolbar. Then, just tap the yellow volume icon in the top left to mute it. All that's left to do is select "Done," and you've got yourself one quiet Live Photo.

In iOS 11–12, after hitting "Edit," the yellow volume button is visible right away.

Unmuting a Live Photo is just as simple; just follow the instructions above. When you tap on the gray volume icon this time, it will return to yellow, which will tell you the Live Photo's audio is back online. Just tap "Done" to save it that way. You can also tap "Revert" in the editor, but that will revert any other changes as well.

Just updated your iPhone to iOS 18? You'll find a ton of hot new features for some of your most-used Apple apps. Dive in and see for yourself:

Cover image, screenshot, and GIF by Jake Peterson/Gadget Hacks

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