The Concrete Guide about HEIF Retain Animation or Animated HEIC
Last Updated on December 5, 2021 by Peter Wood
What is the file format of Live Photos? You might not hear about the HEIC Retain Animation, but familiar with the Live Photos of the iPhone. Just as the definition of HEIF Retains Animation or Animated HEIC, it is a new standard for all the devices, including iPhone. When you need to view the photo files or convert them to another format, just learn more details from the ultimate guide from the article.

Part 1: What is HEIF Retain Animation
There have been numerous developments in the presentation and display of animated pictures during the last few years. One such example is HEIF Retain Animation or animated HEIC. This new format contains both animated and static information in addition to still images.
When storing animated information, the new common format should ideally use temporal compression techniques. It should also be capable of informing players about the presentation's intended outcome, for example, through the use of a looped sequence.
In addition, the HEIF Retain Animation must be able to include many photos within a single file. For instance, multi-exposure stacks or stereo images are examples of this, such as the Live Photos. This is to assist in the development and deployment of new computational photography methods, which are currently under development.

Animated HEIC V.S. JPEG
The new format must be capable of supporting all of the features currently available in JPEG while also offering improved performance. It needs to be compatible with professional photography tools, the web, and the cloud, among other things.
Moreover, the HEIF retain animation must be adaptable and extendable in order to keep up with the ever-changing photography ecology. Both on the lossy and lossless fronts, the compression technology must be at the cutting edge of technology. This means that it must be competitive not only with natural images but also while reducing text and graphics.
The format must be compatible with hardware-accelerated coding and decode operations on modern processors, graphics processors, and electronic signal processors (ESPs). The need for performance and strength ranks quite high on the list of prerequisites.
For photographs captured on consumer devices, it must support high bit depth and a wide color gamut, which are the next frontiers in image quality. The HEIF Retain Animation compresses 4:4:4 color sampling while also describing HDR information, which includes HDR metadata, transfer function, and color space definitions, among other features.

Part 2: How to Convert Animated HEIC to GIF
As mentioned above, animated HEIC is limited to certain devices only, such as the Live Photos. Even if you are using the Photos app to view the HEIF Retain Animation photos, you cannot play them automatically. Moreover, you can only play one animated HEIC at a time.
Is there an all-in-one HEIF Retain Animation toolkit? WidsMob HEIC is the desired choice you can take into consideration. It not only enables you to view the animated HEIC files but also converts them to animated GIFs. Moreover, you can also resize the photos, rotate the files, or rename them in batches.
- Convert your animated HEIC to a GIF or a series of JPEG files.
- Provide different preview modes to browse the animated HEICs.
- Resize the animated HEIC, rotate the files, and rename them.
- Support Live Photos, animations sequence, and burst photo shots.
Step 1: Once you have transferred animated HEICs from iPhone to iMac or PC. Download and install the program on your computer. Click the HEIC files and preview the thumbnails of the animated HEIC. It enables you to view all the animated HEICs in the same folder.

Step 2: To view the animated HEIC's information, double-click any file to open it in full-screen mode. It not only allows you to view all of the animated HEIC, but it also allows you to resize the animation files, add watermarks to them, or even rotate the photos in batches.

Step 3: You can also convert HEIF Retain Animation to GIF. Once you have chosen GIF as the output format, click the Combine all frames to a GIF box to convert HEIF retain images from the HEIC file into an animated GIF file. You can click the OK button to save the changes.

Note: It also enables you to convert the animated HEIC file into JPEGs. Different from the other HEIC converters, it will turn the HEIF Retain Animation into a series of photos for each frame of the file.
Part 3: FAQs about HEIF Retain Animation
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HEIF Retain Animation files have been supported by both the iOS and macOS operating systems since 2017. You can browse the HEICs via Apple Preview, Apple Live Photos, and Photos (iOS and macOS). Moreover, the file formats are used for more and more devices.
GIF supports 256 colors and employs a lossless compression approach to store photos. It may also include text. It may include low-resolution image animation. As a result, GIF is frequently utilized in web publishing. It is the reason to convert HEIF Retain Animation files to GIFs.
An animated HEIC file comprises one or more images saved in the High-Efficiency Image Format, which is the most commonly used file format for storing photos on iOS devices. It comprises an image or sequence of images, as well as metadata characterizing each image.
Conclusion
The HEIF Retain Animation or animated HEIC is widely used for iOS devices, such as Live Photos. If you want to view the photos on Windows, or use this file for more purposes, feel free to use this guide to help you in converting animated HEIC to GIF. It can help you to maximize the use of your files from your devices.