TikTok has started rolling out a new feature that lets users turn photos into animated video clips using its new AI-powered feature. The tool is called AI Alive, and it works from inside the app’s Story Camera.
With the help of this feature, TikTok users and creators can pick any single photo and apply animation effects that give it motion feel. The image gets processed with TikTok’s editing tools, which add background movement, transitions, and visual flair to create something that looks closer to a short video than a still frame.
To use this feature, you tap the blue plus sign either from your Profile or Inbox, choose a static photo from your Story Album, and let TikTok handle the rest. The finished animation then appears in your Stories and shows up across followers' feeds and your main profile.
The results can range from smooth and cinematic to a bit strange, depending on the photo and how the AI reads it. Sometimes it does a decent job making the image feel alive. Other times, faces or hands might stretch, twist, or double up in weird ways, which can make the video look a bit off. Still, it adds a new way to experiment, especially if you want something more eye-catching than a plain photo.
This update may also be TikTok’s way of getting ahead of Instagram, which is testing a similar feature inside its new video app called Edits. That app looks a lot like CapCut, TikTok’s popular editor, and could be part of Meta’s efforts to catch up in the AI video space.
It’s not the first time TikTok has leaned into AI features, and it probably won’t be the last. These tools are becoming more common across social media platforms, and users are starting to expect them. For now, AI Alive is one more option for people who want to tell a short visual story — even if they only have a single photo to start with.
Read next: Apple Tests Thought-Controlled Access for iPhones, Macs, and Vision Pro Headset
With the help of this feature, TikTok users and creators can pick any single photo and apply animation effects that give it motion feel. The image gets processed with TikTok’s editing tools, which add background movement, transitions, and visual flair to create something that looks closer to a short video than a still frame.
To use this feature, you tap the blue plus sign either from your Profile or Inbox, choose a static photo from your Story Album, and let TikTok handle the rest. The finished animation then appears in your Stories and shows up across followers' feeds and your main profile.
The results can range from smooth and cinematic to a bit strange, depending on the photo and how the AI reads it. Sometimes it does a decent job making the image feel alive. Other times, faces or hands might stretch, twist, or double up in weird ways, which can make the video look a bit off. Still, it adds a new way to experiment, especially if you want something more eye-catching than a plain photo.
This update may also be TikTok’s way of getting ahead of Instagram, which is testing a similar feature inside its new video app called Edits. That app looks a lot like CapCut, TikTok’s popular editor, and could be part of Meta’s efforts to catch up in the AI video space.
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It’s not the first time TikTok has leaned into AI features, and it probably won’t be the last. These tools are becoming more common across social media platforms, and users are starting to expect them. For now, AI Alive is one more option for people who want to tell a short visual story — even if they only have a single photo to start with.
Read next: Apple Tests Thought-Controlled Access for iPhones, Macs, and Vision Pro Headset
