TikTok Users Are Blown Away With the Ability to Animate Their Loved Ones' Photos

For some TikTok users, the app has finally done the unthinkable. It has shown us how to bring loved ones back from the dead. OK, not really, but using the app MyHeritage with TikTok has shown users how to animate photos of ancestors or family members who have died to allow them to see their relatives talking or moving again.

It's an emotional roller-coaster for some. For others, it takes deepfakes to a whole other level and has been another way for TikTok to basically blow your mind. Because, while TikTok is not responsible for the ability to transform these images, it has been a place for MyHeritage users to upload evidence of their own photos of relatives coming back to life, so to speak.

First, you will need to have the MyHeritage app on your device. You can download it from your phone's app store and sign up for a free account. From there, you add information about your family and you'll be given a family tree. Once you're at that part of the process, press on the three lines in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. From there, choose 'photos.'

Pick the photo you want to animate, presumably of a family member who has passed away. Then, press 'next' and 'upload.' When you press on the photo, and then the 'animate' button, it will bring the photo to life and the person in it will begin to move. They'll likely smile, blink, and move their head every so slightly.

After you save the animated photo to your phone, you can then upload it to TikTok. When you upload it to TikTok, you can choose to have a sound effect or song behind it. Or, you can include your own voice-over explaining your reaction to seeing your family member's image moving in a similar way as when they were still alive.

While the animated photos linked to the MyHeritage app are certainly jarring, it's not the only way TikTok users have reunited with loved ones on the platform. There is a filter meant to show what you look like as an elderly person and, for some people, they claim it also shows you what your parents looked like.

Users whose parents have passed away have been brought to tears upon seeing their face with the filter, which, to them, often resembles their moms and dads. It's not as complicated to access as the MyHeritage app, but it's also not an exact photo or animated photo of the loved one you have lost, so there are some vast differences.

For other users, it's just a filter, which makes them a bit put off by how old they look as they hope out loud not to really age in such a way. Like many things on TikTok, it's up to the user's own interpretation and experience.

But because of that filter, the MyHeritage app's animated photos, and everything else on the platform, TikTok continues to surprise and stun so many.