There's pretty much no escaping animated GIFs on the Internet these days. And now, one former safe haven has officially jumped on the animated GIF bandwagon — Twitter.
The micro-blogging service on Wednesday added support for the looping, moving images. "Starting today, you can share and view animated GIFs on Twitter.com, Android and iPhone," according to a tweet from Twitter Support. The company also included a demo GIF showing how they'll work on the site.
Luckily, animated GIFs won't automatically start to play as you're scrolling through your Twitter feed. On mobile devices, you can press the play button to view the animation and on Twitter.com, you'll need to press the "view photo" link to see it.
Starting today, you can share and view animated GIFs on http://t.co/wJD8Fp317i, Android and iPhone. http://t.co/XBrAbOm4Ya
— Twitter Support (@Support) June 18, 2014
Twitter also had a little fun with its announcement, addressing the controversy over the pronunciation of the word GIF. In its sample GIF, a user starts typing the word GIF with a J, but erases it and goes with the correct spelling of GIF.
The debate over how to say word GIF has been going on for years, but really picked up steam last May when GIF creator Steve Wilhite weighed in on the animated images' correct pronunciation. His answer: Much like the peanut butter brand (Jif), it's a soft "G." But not everyone agrees. Even the White House decreed that GIF gets a "hard G."
Meanwhile, Pinterest back in January added support for animated GIFs and Google+ started letting members use GIFs as their profile photos last year.
If you have a great idea for an animated GIF, but have never made one before, don't fret. Check out PCMag's overview of How to Make Animated GIFs. Also take a look at our slideshow of The Latest Adventures of Animated GFS.