What Does FaceTime Live Photos Mean and How Do I Turn it Off on My iPhone?

  • FaceTime Live Photos is a feature on Apple devices where a person with whom you are having a FaceTime video call is able to take your picture.
  • Both individuals must have FaceTime Live Photos enabled for the feature to work for either person.
  • If you have FaceTime Live Photos enabled you will receive a notification if the other person has taken your picture.

Since the creation of image and video-based social media, people have been trying to download or capture pictures of the people they see.

While most people that post content to their publicly-available social media will understand that others can download that content, if you’re engaging in something that’s at least somewhat private, like a video call, then you might want to prevent someone from saving it.

Apple previously introduced a feature to FaceTime called FaceTime Live Photos which allows people on a FaceTime video call to take a picture of what they see. This option is enabled by default, and you can capture a FaceTime Live Photo by tapping the shutter button on the screen.

Luckily you can disable FaceTime Live Photos if you do not wish for someone to be able to take your picture while you are on a call with them.

How to Disable FaceTime Live Photos on an iPhone 11

The steps in this article were performed on an iPhone 11 in iOS 13.4. By completing these steps you will be preventing both yourself and anyone on a FaceTime video call from taking Live Photos during that call.

Step 1: Open the Settings app.

open Settings

Step 2: Scroll down and select the FaceTime option.

what does FaceTime Live Photos mean on an iPhone

Step 3: Scroll to the bottom of the menu and tap the button to the right of FaceTime Live Photos to turn it off.

how to disable FaceTime Live Photos on an iPhone

Note that this won’t change any image-capturing settings for other similar apps, such as Skype or Zoom.

Find out how to turn off your iPhone’s passcode if you would prefer not to enter it each time you want to unlock your device.

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