Twitter Experimenting With Dedicated GIF Button for Mobile Apps [Updated]

A few Twitter users on the social network's Android app have begun to notice a dedicated GIF button within the Tweet composition box of the mobile client. Speaking with TechCrunch, Twitter user Phil Pearlman said that the new button lets users browse through current popular GIFs in a trending tab, or select a mood they're feeling to see resulting GIFs based on that emotion. So far the GIF button appears to only be showing up on Android, but if Twitter is planning a wide rollout, it should presumably come to iOS as well.

If people aren't seeing it yet twttr is testing way cool gif feature. cc @bluechoochoo pic.twitter.com/LuTsVeUiSs — Phil Pearlman (@ppearlman) February 4, 2016

Pearlman wasn't the only Twitter user to see the GIF button appear within the Android app, with quite a few people mentioning it over the past day. It's also been disappearing for just as many who got to briefly test the feature out, with a couple users -- including Pearlman -- noticing the button suddenly disappearing from the app.

Besides a playful GIF of its own, Twitter didn't respond to comment on the possible large-scale rollout of a GIF button feature for the service's mobile app. Given that many users already go through the laborious process of searching for GIFs online and inserting them into tweets through the Media option, it makes sense for the company to begin streamlining that process.

Update 2/17: Twitter has confirmed that "GIF Search" is officially coming to iOS, Android, and Twitter.com users "over the coming weeks."

Tag: Twitter

Top Rated Comments

arn

121 months ago

I understand the character limitation of Twitter, but of all the ways to save letters why would he choose to drop those two specific vowels? He could have dropped "way" from "way cool" and gotten his point across while still doing a better job of spelling.

I think the original name of the service was twttr

http://techcrunch.com/2006/07/15/is-twttr-interesting/

Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

jmh600cbr

That's another new feature ;) https://blog.twitter.com/2013/annncng-twttr

Is this real?

centauratlas

Check the date. ;-)

innominato5090

Keane16

I like GIFs. But I wish a modern equivalent would emerge (APNG or anything else that can get wide adoption quickly). With better support for colours and smaller file sizes.