For all the viral videos and memes shared on Facebook, the social network has been surprisingly cold towards the GIF, as there’s no simple way for every day users to post them without visiting an external website. That may change at last.
According to a report by TechCrunch, Facebook has confirmed it plans to begin testing a GIF button that would allow users to post the animated images as responses in comments. As with Messenger, the GIFs are sourced from sites like Giphy and Tenor.
Facebook has long explained the lack of GIF support as wariness towards cluttering the News Feed. That always struck me as odd, given the prevelance of autoplaying videos on the network – which now even autoplay with sound. Surely GIFs are no more annoying than that, especially if you have to tap to play.
Facebook told TechCrunch it will “share more when we can, but for now we repeat this is just a test.” Either way, get ready for a lot more GIFs in your News Feed.
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