Why would we want to turn our Live Photos into animated gifs?

To stash them on PandaWhale?

I like that. :)

"But live photos are interesting on iPhone for the same reason that Living Images were interesting on Lumia devices a few years ago: Though automatic and requiring no work on the part of the photo taker, they result in surprisingly compelling peeks at the “living” moment that is occurring as you take a photo. The trick is getting them out of the Apple prison.

So Google Motion does this. It comes from Google Research, which makes the app a Google equivalent to Microsoft’s Garage apps, meaning that it is an experiment of sorts and not necessarily up to the stringent testing that higher profile apps receive. That said, Google says it will incorporate this technology soon into Google Photos too.

“We use our video stabilization technology to freeze the background into a still photo or create sweeping cinematic pans,” Google explains. “The resulting looping GIFs and movies come alive, and can easily be shared via messaging or on social media.” "

That does sound pretty cool actually.