Samsung to Launch Live Photos Rival Called Vivid Photo with Galaxy S7





Back in September, Apple launched the iPhone 6S which comes with Live Photos, a feature which captures 1.5 seconds of video before and after a picture is taken. HTC's Zoe Capture was capable of doing the same thing long before Live Photos, but this gimmick only became cool now because Apple has it on its phones.

But Samsung wants to jump into the Live Photos bandwagon, too. According to one of our sources the software engineers of the South Korean phone maker are testing a Live Photos-like feature that is supposed to debut with the Galaxy S7 later this year.

He said that the new feature is still under development and that even though Samsung plans to offer it with the Galaxy S7 at launch it might arrive later this year with a software update. As for the name, he said he heard this feature being called multiple ways, from Timeless Photo to Vivid Photo, the latter one being a combination between "vivid memory" and "photo".

Unlike Apple's Live Photos, the Vivid Photo feature from Samsung won't capture sound with the photo. By ditching sound capture, Samsung will allow users to share Vivid Photos directly to Facebook as GIFs. This way, Vivid Photos won't require special attention from Facebook, as Live Photos did, because GIFs are already supported by the social network giant.

Samsung's Galaxy S7 is without a doubt the most anticipated smartphone of the first half of the year. With the S7 launch right around the corner, the rumors and reports that surfaced online have painted an almost complete picture of Samsung's next-gen flagship. Rumor has it that, despite looking very much alike the Galaxy S6, the new phone will be water resistant while reintroducing the microSD slot. There have also been reports of a pressure-sensitive display and three different screen size options launched at the same time.

Hardware-wise, Galaxy S7 is expected to bring a Quad HD Super AMOLED display, Snapdragon 820 or Exynos 8890 processor (market dependent), 4 GB RAM, 32/64/128 GB storage, 12 MP rear cam with BRITECELL sensor, and a 5 MP selfie cam. The phone will run Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box.