Twitter may have just rolled back a really bad product decision, but on Tuesday, it added a very good one: you can make GIFs right from the in-app camera on iOS. The new feature could be a useful way to share short clips to your timeline without having to upload a full video.
Here’s a GIF I recorded from my iPhone 12 Mini just before writing this story if you want to get an idea of how one of these GIFs looks:
Recording the GIF was easy. In the iOS app, I hit the new tweet button, tapped the photo icon, then the camera icon, made sure I was on the GIF mode, and pressed and held the record button. (Twitter has posted a handy GIF of its own demonstrating the steps.) My GIF loops, kind of like Instagram’s Boomerangs, though you can have the GIF start over from the beginning if you prefer.
However, like most GIFs in tweets, there doesn’t appear to be a way to easily share them off the platform. If you right-click the GIF, Twitter only shows the option to “Copy Gif Address” — there’s no option to save a GIF to your computer or phone.
The feature is only available on iOS right now. When asked if the feature will be coming to Android, Twitter spokesperson Stephanie Cortez said Twitter will be “gathering feedback to inform future updates,” but did not provide a timeline as to if or when that might happen.
Update March 22nd, 7:06PM: Added information from Twitter.
wazup.