Twitter GIF button finally begins reaching mobile users

Posting silly animated pictures of cats has never been easier

Doug Bolton
Wednesday 24 February 2016 13:03 GMT
Comments
The new feature has been welcomed by Twitter users - a rare occurrence nowadays
The new feature has been welcomed by Twitter users - a rare occurrence nowadays (Getty)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Twitter's new GIF button finally seems to be making its way to more and more mobile users.

Twitter announced the new feature on 17 February, and said they would begin slowly rolling it out in the coming weeks. One week later, it looks like it's beginning to reach most tweeters, although it seems like it hasn't arrived yet for a few Android users.

When users go to write a new tweet on Twitter's mobile app, they can choose to add a GIF by tapping the icon between the picture and poll buttons.

That then brings up a new screen with a search bar at the top and a load of categories below - including gems like 'Do Not Want', 'Eyeroll' and 'Facepalm'. Users can type in anything they want and search Giphy's massive database to find the appropriate picture.

There's more GIF-related updates coming in the near future - the button will be coming to Twitter.com soon, so you can post GIFs from a desktop or a laptop.

GIFs are basically the currency of Twitter, so the new feature has been received very well by users.

After introducing a number of strange and unpopular updates to Twitter's interface, making it easier for users to post cat GIFs could help the company bring them back on side.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in