Facebook's popular messaging app WhatsApp for iPhone was updated over the weekend with long-overdue support for animated GIFs.

whatsapp-gifs
WhatsApp users can now send and receive their own animated GIFs, or discover and share GIFs from built-in services such as Giphy and Tenor -- which one exactly appears to be dependant on your region.

Likewise, videos that are shorter than six seconds and Live Photos can also be sent as GIFs. To send a Live Photo as a GIF, simply 3D Touch the photo after tapping on Attach > Photo/Video Library and choose "Select as GIF."

WhatsApp is available as a free download on the App Store [Direct Link] for iPhone. The app is now at version 2.16.15.

Top Rated Comments

-Ryan- Avatar
107 months ago
Everytime this app is updated I hope Apple Watch support will be added. Sadly I doubt it will ever happen.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
knemonic Avatar
107 months ago
This happened to me as well but only on a small resolution gif, maybe it has something to do with the resolution? o_O
I think I figured it out and I don't think anyone will like it.

I read the article again more closely and the wording in the first paragraph makes it sound like you can only use your own created gifs (which is Live Photos) or the Giphy add on. I have a ton of gifs in my library and the moment I touch one to add to a chat, it gives me that error. Even if I force touch and swipe up, I only get a select photo/cancel option. When I do the same swipe up on a live photo, it gives me a send as a gif command and then can modify it. So they're basically allowing us to send our own Live Photos but none of the gifs stored in our library that we've gotten from the net.

From what I can see, this is a half a$$ implementation of gif support, which is silly to say the least.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CarpalMac Avatar
107 months ago
So, a $19.3bn company has scraped together enough resources to add functionality that Telegram has had for over two years.

Bravo!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Digital Dude Avatar
107 months ago
I’ve been using WhatsApp for about 4-5 months now and I had no idea it was a Facebook derivative. It’s quite popular in Europe and my GF in Italy told me about it so I gave it a try. I’m amazed by the audio quality and it operates so much better than iMessages. Not sure how they managed to do that but I like it.

More on point, this new update completely hosed all photos taken with the iPhone by cutting them off in strange sections. Sometimes, I wonder if any of these developers actually test their product before they just post it, Apple included.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
OutSpoken Avatar
107 months ago
It works flawlessly for me on an iPhone 6 - this is copying and pasting saved gifs from my library in the GIFwrapped app.

Surprising to hear Whatsapp isn't supported on Apple Watch!
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chino-rican Avatar
107 months ago
power system administrator
Google got that one horribly wrong! :o
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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