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How to Record a Photo and Sound with Samsung Galaxy S4 Sound Shot

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The Samsung Galaxy S4 Sound Shot mode lets photographers shoot photos and embed up to nine seconds of audio. We’ll show users how to create a Samsung Galaxy S4 Sound Shot using the phone’s camera along with tips for making it work better.

We’ll also show users how to share shots either by sharing with another Samsung Galaxy S4 owner or with other devices. Samsung limits the Sound Shot file format to the Galaxy S4, but users can convert them to videos for sharing with other devices.

Why Create Samsung Galaxy S4 Sound Shot Files

Why would someone want to make a Sound Shot instead of just taking a photo?

  • Sometimes a video is overkill, but a photo isn’t enough
  • Instructions on how to do a task
  • Photo of a newborn to Grandma with the baby cooing or crying

Watch our the camera segment of our Samsung Galaxy S4 video review below:

How to Shoot a Sound Shot

Open the Galaxy S4 camera. Choose the Sound Shot mode using the Mode button next to the camera button.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Sound Shot Mode

Choose the Sound Shot mode from the carousel that pops up. Here’s one power user tip. Change from the default carousel of modes to a grid view for faster mode selection. Use the mode view toggle button in either the upper right corner in portrait mode or the lower right corner in landscape mode. This makes selecting shooting modes much faster.

Samsung Galaxy S4 picture modes grid view

Change the mode selection view from the default carousel view to an easier to sue grid view using the toggle button.

Compose the shot, tap the screen to focus and take the picture. An audio recorder pops up and the shows time left.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Sound Shot recoding screen

Samsung Galaxy S4 Sound Shot recoding screen

The recording stops after nine seconds or when the user taps the stop button.

Viewing and Sharing Sound Shots

To view and hear the Sound Shot, open the stock Gallery app, the only one that supports Sound Shots, and tap a Sound Shot indicated by the musical note icon over the picture.

sound shots in gallery

Sound Shots in Gallery are indicated by an icon with a musical note on them.

A user must covert a Sound Shot to a video or share it as an ordinary photo with no audio, if their recipient doesn’t own a Galaxy S4. Do this from within the Gallery app. Tap on the Sound Shot and choose the Share button.

How to share a Samsung Galaxy S4 Sound Shot as a video

Pick “As video file” to preserve the sound or “As image file” from the menu. The first one creates and MP4 video file with sound. View the sample below. The second only keeps the sound embedded if the users shares to another Galaxy S4 using Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth or using the ChatOn app. Otherwise it shares it as an ordinary JPG file.

DropBox is our preferred app for sharing such files. Choose DropBox from the popup and it uploads the file to the service. Share it with others by sharing a link or get it on a computer by using the DropBox app or from the service’s website.

4 Comments

4 Comments

  1. Nnamdi

    07/20/2013 at 10:29 am

    Awesome phone

  2. IOS

    10/13/2013 at 12:52 pm

    And here’s the utility to extract the sound from the JPG file :
    https://www.accalio.com/SGS4-Audio-Extractor.307.0.html (only experimental, but you may like it :) )

  3. ginnmilk

    12/05/2013 at 6:36 am

    There’s a solution called AudioSnaps, available at the app store for iPhone and at Googleplay amrket for Android. It does the same (picture with sound) but you can share it whit everyone (not only S4 users!)

  4. Gabble

    05/22/2014 at 3:25 pm

    Thanks for this Mr Purcell. Really helpful information and tips. I really love my GS4 Z.

    My tip – sound and shot is great for thunderstorms.

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