TL;DR
- Motion Photos combine a still picture with a short video clip.
- Currently when uploading a Motion Photo to Google Maps, it only works as a still pic.
- The app appears to be working on support for letting users choose to upload Motion Photos as videos.
Motion Photos may be one of the coolest camera options available to us that we just don’t pay nearly enough attention to, able to fuse short video clips with our still photos in order to better preserve the whole vibe of a moment. They’re great for when you’re taking a nostalgic dive through your old gallery, but that weird photo/video duality also means that apps don’t always know quite what to do with them. Today, thankfully, we’re checking out one way that situation may soon be getting better.
Maps is easily one of Google’s richest Android apps, packed with all sorts of different data types — and that includes media. When you tap on a place in Maps you’re able to quickly get a sense for what it’s like with the help of all the pics and videos that visitors have uploaded.
So far, though, Maps hasn’t had any real explicit support for Motion Photos, and when you upload one the app just sees it as a still picture.
Don’t want to miss the best from Android Authority?
Looking through the 25.35.00.798803015 beta release of Google Maps, however, we’ve spotted what appears to be early work towards changing that, and fleshing out the app’s compatibility with Motion Photos.
Right now none of this is yet active, and while we haven’t been able to try out the functionality for ourselves, these text strings paint a rather vivid picture of what we’re likely to expect:
Code
<string name="motion_photo_education_dialog_body">Tap the top left icon on motion photos to add them to your post as videos instead of photos.</string>
<string name="motion_photo_education_dialog_title">Turn motion photos into videos</string>
<string name="motion_photo_education_tooltip_text">Tap to upload as video</string>As you can see, Maps is preparing to start informing users that they’ll be able to choose to upload Motion Photos as videos, rather than still pics.
⚠️ An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
Code
<string name="motion_photo_from_photo_mode_to_video_mode_button_description">Turn video on</string>
<string name="motion_photo_from_video_mode_to_photo_mode_button_description">Turn video off</string>
<string name="motion_photo_play_video">Play video</string>
<string name="motion_photo_posted_as_photo_message">Video will be posted as a photo</string>
<string name="motion_photo_posted_as_video_message">Photo will be posted as a video</string>Additional strings in the app look like they contribute to parts of the interface users will experience, reflecting their choices to upload Motion Photos as still shots or video clips.
Again, right now this isn’t working at all, and your Motion Photos will just be treated like regular pictures. But it seems clear that Google is interested in finally giving users the other option, and hopefully it won’t be long before we’re able to give you a preview of this new support in action.
Thank you for being part of our community. Read our Comment Policy before posting.
