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Should an iPhone XR support Live Wallpapers?


  • Total voters
    53

NoHardFeelings

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 4, 2016
29
19
I got a chance to play with an iPhone XR and wow isn't it nice. However, one key deal breaker to me is that iPhone XR does NOT support Live Wallpapers, where you can set a Live Photo to your Lock Screen.

I find this rather absurd. It's not like the iPhone XR lacks the capabilities or the interface to enable Live Wallpapers -- it's all about marketing. Lack of features here and there so people want the high-end iPhone XS a little more. Haptic Touch, as Apple markets it as a 3D Touch substitute, should work perfectly fine to activate a Live Wallpaper. Rather, Apple chooses not to support this feature altogether on an iPhone XR. The last phone that hasn't supported Live Wallpaper is iPhone SE.

I'm curious if anyone thinks the same.

EDIT: This is not a bug from Apple. If you look at iPhone XR's settings, the "Live" option is never presented, so it's pretty much intentional.
 
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davedvdy

macrumors 6502a
Oct 25, 2011
803
589
It's fun but a novelty feature in the respect you are mentioning it.
Do you use 3D Touch for any useful reasons?
 

doboy

macrumors 68040
Jul 6, 2007
3,774
2,945
I got a chance to play with an iPhone XR and wow isn't it nice. However, one key deal breaker to me is that iPhone XR does NOT support Live Wallpapers, where you can set a Live Photo to your Lock Screen.

I find this rather absurd. It's not like the iPhone XR lacks the capabilities or the interface to enable Live Wallpapers -- it's all about marketing. Lack of features here and there so people want the high-end iPhone XS a little more. Haptic Touch, as Apple markets it as a 3D Touch substitute, should work perfectly fine to activate a Live Wallpaper. Rather, Apple chooses not to support this feature altogether on an iPhone XR. The last phone that hasn't supported Live Wallpaper is iPhone SE.

I'm curious if anyone thinks the same.
Didn’t even know you could set Live Photo as wallpaper so not missing it on my XR. Haha
 
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NoHardFeelings

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 4, 2016
29
19
It's fun but a novelty feature in the respect you are mentioning it.
Do you use 3D Touch for any useful reasons?

I do use it here and there (peek-and-pop in emails, notifications, and keyboard cursor), but the lack of 3D Touch itself is not a deal breaker to me (there are software substitutes like long-presses). However, all phones I have used (6s, 7 Plus, X) have supported Live Wallpapers, so I find it strange that Apple wouldn't include this feature that's fairly easily implemented with their Haptic Touch in their new mid-range phones.
 

New_Mac_Smell

macrumors 68000
Oct 17, 2016
1,931
1,552
Shanghai
Does anyone actually use the live wallpaper? Took me ages to work out how to use it, I assumed it would just be a shifting image, but I have to physically press the screen to make it move. Which I can tell you I did precisely one time. Most of the time my lock screen is filled with notifications, or I am unlocking the phone.
 
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Ebok

Suspended
Aug 22, 2018
457
672
live wallpapers are a dumb feature

how often do you spend on the lockscreen?

how often do you spend on the lockscreen while there's notifications?

why are you even staring at the lockscreen to see an image move to begin with?!
 

Vazmuten

macrumors newbie
Oct 29, 2018
1
1
I hope Apple will fix this with an update - a Heptic Touch/Long press on the lock screen should start the Live wallpaper :)
 
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NoHardFeelings

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 4, 2016
29
19
Does anyone actually use the live wallpaper? Took me ages to work out how to use it, I assumed it would just be a shifting image, but I have to physically press the screen to make it move. Which I can tell you I did precisely one time. Most of the time my lock screen is filled with notifications, or I am unlocking the phone.

Didn't you get to play with those colorful fish animations on iPhone 6s? I personally used Live Wallpapers since it first came out and enjoyed customizing them since then. Makes me smile every time I pick my phone up.

The notifications hasn't bothered me much because these days you have to swipe up first to see all the notifications. You can also clear them easily by long-pressing / force-pressing the "X".
 
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JBGoode

macrumors 65816
Jun 16, 2018
1,360
1,922
Deal breaker? It's a novelty for children. No.

Should it support live wallpapers? Sure, why not if that floats your boat, but to decide not to buy a phone because it lacks this feature is pretty stupid as it adds zero value to the experience. In my opinion of course. :)
 

New_Mac_Smell

macrumors 68000
Oct 17, 2016
1,931
1,552
Shanghai
Didn't you get to play with those colorful fish animations on iPhone 6s? I personally used Live Wallpapers since it first came out and enjoyed customizing them since then. Makes me smile every time I pick my phone up.

The notifications hasn't bothered me much because these days you have to swipe up first to see all the notifications. You can also clear them easily by long-pressing / force-pressing the "X".

I went from a 6 straight to an Xs, pretty much everything was new... Live Photos I like, but the wallpaper element was very much give or take to me.
 

Minimumsix13

macrumors newbie
Nov 30, 2018
3
1
It's fun but a novelty feature in the respect you are mentioning it.
Do you use 3D Touch for any useful reasons?
I used the app shortcuts on the home screen all the time. More than that, I miss the 3D Touch on the keyboard. I know you can hold down space to move the cursor but you used to be able to press down a second time to select, too. Didn’t realize how much I used the feature until it was gone
 
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1rottenapple

macrumors 601
Apr 21, 2004
4,753
2,774
I got a chance to play with an iPhone XR and wow isn't it nice. However, one key deal breaker to me is that iPhone XR does NOT support Live Wallpapers, where you can set a Live Photo to your Lock Screen.

I find this rather absurd. It's not like the iPhone XR lacks the capabilities or the interface to enable Live Wallpapers -- it's all about marketing. Lack of features here and there so people want the high-end iPhone XS a little more. Haptic Touch, as Apple markets it as a 3D Touch substitute, should work perfectly fine to activate a Live Wallpaper. Rather, Apple chooses not to support this feature altogether on an iPhone XR. The last phone that hasn't supported Live Wallpaper is iPhone SE.

I'm curious if anyone thinks the same.

EDIT: This is not a bug from Apple. If you look at iPhone XR's settings, the "Live" option is never presented, so it's pretty much intentional.
Novelty. It’s cool for like 1 day then I’m over it.
 

NoHardFeelings

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 4, 2016
29
19
I used the app shortcuts on the home screen all the time. More than that, I miss the 3D Touch on the keyboard. I know you can hold down space to move the cursor but you used to be able to press down a second time to select, too. Didn’t realize how much I used the feature until it was gone

Ah I thought you can still do that on iPhone XR! I am still using iPhone X here and that feature (3D Touch again to select text) is pretty much a must-have for me these days.

You know, on iPad if you hold your two fingers still on the keyboard for slightly longer, the cursor can start selecting text too. I'm curious if that is implemented on iPhone XR as well.
 
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Phone Junky

macrumors 68030
Oct 29, 2011
2,514
4,420
Midwest
Ah I thought you can still do that on iPhone XR! I am still using iPhone X here and that feature (3D Touch again to select text) is pretty much a must-have for me these days.

You know, on iPad if you hold your two fingers still on the keyboard for slightly longer, the cursor can start selecting text too. I'm curious if that is implemented on iPhone XR as well.
Long touch on spacebar gives you the trackpad feature on XR.
 
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