Step Up Your GIF Game With These Tools

A number of high-profile services have integrated GIFs. Here's how to use them.

GIFs bring joy and laughter (unless you pronounce it JIF). In our meme-tastic society, nothing conveys just how funny you are like a three-second loop from something someone else created.

At the MIT Media Lab, researchers are studying GIFs in part to help computers identify emotion. But a Columbia University study based on this work has found that GIFs also help humans decipher emotions in other people.

One of the biggest and best source of gifs is Giphy.com. The GIF search engine is no joke, with a $300 million valuation and its own content-creation studio in the works. A relatively new source of GIF-fy pleasure comes from actor and activist Jesse Williams, who has developed Ebroji, an iOS app that gives you a GIF-powered keyboard. But it's not the only source of animated images on the Web. A number of high-profile services have integrated GIFs of late; read on for other ways to GIF up your life.

Click To View Slideshow »

Slack

If you use Slack at work, you need to be on top of your GIF game for career-advancement reasons. Installing the Giphy Slack integration will let anyone on your team drop a context-driven GIF into a channel or direct message by just typing /giphy and a word they want to portray in GIF format. Go to the Giphy app page, sign in, click Install, then select Add Giphy Integration.

Twitter

Forget about narrowing down what you have to say to 140 characters or less, get your point across in a GIF. Adding GIFs to Twitter recently got a lot easier with a dedicated GIF button. If you use Twitter.com or the Twitter app, you'll see a GIF button when you go to type a tweet. Tap the button and you'll get an alphabetical list of categories and a search bar, both of which are powered by Giphy.

Instagram

A GIF is not a photo, not yet a video. Instagram only handles one or the other, so you can't directly upload GIFs. But there's a workaround. You can use the iOS app GIFShare to convert them to videos to share on Instagram. There's an Android alternative, too.

Instagram's own Boomerang, meanwhile, turns short video into a back-and-forth loop for an amusing effect. Like Hyperlapse, Boomerang is pretty much a one-trick video-effect pony, but ponies are fun and everyone wants one.

GIFBoom

For those who want more than GIFs on a social network but an entire social network made up of GIFs, check out GIFBoom. With the app (Android, iOS), you can create and upload your own. Fair warning though: it's mostly selfies, dressed and barely.

Snapchat

Snapchat lets you send a GIF-like 10-second looped video. As an extra gift, it plays audio if the recipient taps it. Tap on the name or names of those you want to send the snap to, then click the video button and hold it while you record your video, let go when done, and hit Send. You can also turn your Snapchat QR code into a selfie GIF.

Imgur

Imgur is a fave place to find and create GIFs. Go to imgur.com/vidgif, type in the URL of a video, set the start and end times with the slider, add text if you want, and select Create GIF to download or share your new image.

Facebook Messenger

Get more expressive on Facebook Messenger with GIFs. In a chat, click on the GIF button for Giphy-supplied images and tap twice on the one you want to send.

I'll Tumblr For Ya

What would Tumblr be without GIFs? If you're using Tumblr's iOS app, you can make them directly from your camera roll. In the Tumblr app, open a new photo post, select a video or a burst, and it automatically becomes a GIF.

Make Your Own

If you can't find the perfect GIF or you've always dreamt of being a GIF star, then make your own. Follow this tutorial or go to Giphy's GIF Maker. Upload a video file or paste in a link to a video, adjust the start and end times for the clip with the on-screen tools, add a caption with the text editor, select your settings, and then hit Create GIF.

About Our Expert

Chandra Steele

Senior Features Writer

My Experience

My title is Senior Features Writer, which is a license to write about absolutely anything if I can connect it to technology (I can). I’ve been at PCMag since 2011 and have covered the surveillance state, vaccination cards, ghost guns, voting, ISIS, art, fashion, film, design, gender bias, and more. You might have seen me on TV talking about these topics or heard me on your commute home on the radio or a podcast. Or maybe you’ve just seen my Bernie meme.

I strive to explain topics that you might come across in the news but not fully understand, such as NFTs and meme stocks. I’ve had the pleasure of talking tech with Jeff Goldblum, Ang Lee, and other celebrities who have brought a different perspective to it. I put great care into writing gift guides and am always touched by the notes I get from people who’ve used them to choose presents that have been well-received. Though I love that I get to write about the tech industry every day, it’s touched by gender, racial, and socioeconomic inequality and I try to bring these topics to light.

Outside of PCMag, I write fiction, poetry, humor, and essays on culture.

My Areas of Expertise

Making incomprehensible tech news easy to understand
Expanding the boundaries of topics covered in the industry
Figuring out tips and tricks in apps and on devices and letting you know about them
Putting together gift guides for everyone in your life

The Technology I Use

All that gadgets is gold for me: my iPhone 11 Pro, my fifth-generation iPad that I use only for streaming videos and music, my iPad mini 4 that I like to take with me whenever I carry a bag that can fit it, and my MacBook Pro. Why are they all different shades of gold, though? What’s going on, Apple?

None of them quite live up to my two past loves: my LG Lotus LX600 phone and my Sony Walkman NW-E005 MP3 player.

I've never given up wired earbuds so I was ahead of all those trend pieces. I use a Mangotek Lightning-to-3.5mm headphone jack adapter to connect them to my phone.

I have had so many ebook readers, but I prefer paper to them all. Still, my Kindle Paperwhite is perfect for traveling or when I’m too impatient to wait for a book to be released in paperback.

Read the latest from Chandra Steele

Read full bio