Apple is resurrecting Live Photos as wallpapers with iOS 17, allowing users to set a Live Photo as their Lock Screen wallpaper. The catch, however, is that unlike before, users can’t play their Live Photo by pressing down on it, as doing so on iOS 17 brings up the Lock Screen customization panel.
Instead, Live Photos on the iOS 17 Lock Screen will automatically play when a user first wakes up their iPhone. With a Live Photo set as a Lock Screen wallpaper, users can still customize the color and font of the time, as well as add widgets. The depth effect is, however, disabled when using a Live Photo. Live Photos as wallpapers were removed as part of iOS 16’s redesign of the iPhone Lock Screen.
If you’re running the iOS 17 developer beta, which Apple does not advise you do on a main device since it’s pre-release software and may be unstable, simply add a new wallpaper to your Lock Screen, tap on Photos, then choose from Live Photo in the strip.
The first developer beta of iOS 17 is available to members of Apple’s developer program, which is now free on Apple’s developer website. iOS 17, iPadOS 17, watchOS 10, and macOS Sonoma will be available to the general public later this fall following beta testing throughout the summer.
