How do you send a WhatsApp photo that actually moves and has sound — and what else just changed?

WhatsApp now lets you share Live Photos on iPhone and Motion Photos on Android with sound. The same update adds Meta AI chat themes, AI video-call backgrounds from a text prompt, new sticker packs, document scanning on Android, and easier group search.

You send Grandma a photo of the kids in their Halloween costumes and it lands as a flat, silent picture — the wave and the giggle are just gone. Short answer: WhatsApp now lets you share Live Photos on iPhone and Motion Photos on Android with sound, so the little moment around the picture travels with it. The same update adds Meta AI chat themes, AI backgrounds for video calls made from a text prompt, new sticker packs, document scanning on Android, and easier group search.Why it matters: Live and Motion Photos capture a second or two before and after the shutter tap, which is often where the real memory is.

Sending them as stills threw that away. Document scanning on Android also matters in plain practical terms: you can scan and send a form or receipt straight in the chat instead of photographing a wrinkled page at an angle.Try it, step by step:1. Update WhatsApp in the App Store or Google Play.2.

Open a chat, tap the photo picker, and choose a Live Photo (iPhone) or Motion Photo (Android) — send it as that format, not as a still, so motion and sound are kept.3. To try a new look, open a chat’s theme options and pick a Meta AI-generated chat theme.4. On a video call, open the backgrounds option and describe a background with a text prompt to generate one.5.

On Android, use the new document-scanning option when attaching a document for a cleaner, squared-up scan.6. Use the improved group search to find an old group by name instead of scrolling your chat list.Pro tip: A moving photo with sound can also share sound you did not mean to send — a comment made just before or after the picture. Play it back once before sending to family groups.Ad’s take: Half the photos on my phone are better with the two seconds around them.

Just give it one listen before you send — that is the part everybody forgets.