Tumblr Introduces Specialised GIF Posts on Mobile

Tech Radar

There's been an unusual amount of news on Tumblr recently. Tumblr introduced the ability to make your own GIFs on their mobile app last year. However, the feature was hidden within a photo post and you might not pay attention to it unless you're looking for it. Tumblr has since decided that they want more users making GIFs so have introduced a specialised GIF button.

This feature is only for mobile, so you can't make GIFs this way online. It is a shame as Tumblr isn't used on the app that often due to the fact a lot of users find it a little useless. However this could be another way to encourage their members to keep using the app rather that switching to using the service on a browser. The GIF feature is pretty neat though as you can use a video or connected pictures you took in one burst together to create a GIF. This is great for reactions and memes that are really big on Tumblr and they help make these posts more personal. However, in the past, you could literally only use those videos so you may have had to have made a few GIFs and then add the text between them.

The new GIF button takes all that was good from the original feature and improves on it. Now you can make the base GIF and then draw on it, add on emojis and write or draw on it. This means you can have your own "deal with it" GIF or won't need as many GIFs to make that joke you want in on. The feature is pretty much identical to Snapchat's photo editor so it's not going to be difficult to use or anything. If you want to check it out, then just tap the post button as you usually would and you'll see a GIF bubble at the top of the options. Tumblr is hoping that this button will encourage more users to be sharing GIFs and it'll be fun to see what users can come up with. The only worrying thing with this being Tumblr is that someone else might decide to take the GIF of your face and use it for their own means. So make sure you're really okay with that GIF possibly becoming spread around.

At the moment, the GIF button is only available for iOS users, but Tumblr hopes to roll it out to Android users within the next few weeks.

Rosina Brooker

Rosina is a Songbird writer with a degree in Creative Writing. She's trying to focus on her novel on the side but is glad to be playing around with apps and writing about them in the mean time! Follow her @Songbird_Rosina

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