Skip to main content

Twitter lets iOS users turn their video recording into a GIF

We’ve been waiting forever to get an “Edit” button, but Twitter applied a new feature that’s just as good. On Tuesday, it gave iOS users the ability to record GIFs straight from the in-app camera.

Recording GIFs directly on Twitter saves minutes of your time trying to convert a long prerecorded video from your phone’s album on other GIF platforms like GIPHY. You simply press new tweet, tap the camera icon, set it into GIF mode if it’s not there already, and press and hold the record button. Then you can set the GIF to play in a loop similar to Instagram’s Boomerang, or have it play from the beginning.

For the purpose of this story, I set the GIF I created in loop mode and tweeted it out as a demonstration. It’s a recreation of the famous thinking GIF from several years ago (well, sort of).

GIF demo. pic.twitter.com/39xe1POMNX

— Cristina Alexander stands with Ukraine 🦔👑🇺🇦 (@SonicPrincess15) March 22, 2022

After tinkering around with the GIF feature, we discovered that it can’t record any longer than two seconds, which is how long a GIF lasts on average. There’s also no way to save the GIF to your phone or your computer in order to share it outside Twitter. The only option you get is to copy the GIF address when you right-click on the tweet.

The GIF upgrade comes over a week after Twitter rolled back the tabbed timeline, which gave users the option to switch between the algorithmically generated Home tab and the Latest tab that allows users to see their tweets in chronological order. The platform walked back on the update because users complained they would be forced back to the Home tab every time they opened up the app and see tweets out of order, which was confusing for some people who needed to see immediate updates on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

It’s currently unknown if the GIF recording feature will be available for Android users. We have reached out to Twitter for comment on whether it will expand the update to the Android version of its app and will update this story when we hear back.

Editors' Recommendations

Cristina Alexander
Cristina Alexander has been writing since 2014, from opining about pop culture on her personal blog in college to reporting…
iOS 17: Apple didn’t add the one feature I’ve been waiting for
Multiwindow on Galaxy S23 Ultra (on left) and multiwindow with popup window on Oppo Find X6 Pro (on right).

Multiwindow on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (left) and multiwindow with pop-up window on the Oppo Find X6 Pro (right). Prakhar Khanna/Digital Trends

I’m a big-screen phone advocate. While I like the comfort of holding a compact phone (such as the Samsung Galaxy S23 with a 6.1-inch display), I prefer using devices like the Galaxy S23 Ultra, Oppo Find X6 Pro, Xiaomi 13 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max.

Read more
iOS 17 isn’t the iPhone update I was hoping for
iMessage stickers in iOS 17

Apple gave us a jam-packed WWDC 2023 keynote, and it was one of the most significant ones in years. After all, it introduced a brand new product category for Apple with the Vision Pro mixed reality headset. It’s basically as significant as when Steve Jobs revealed the iPhone in 2007, then the iPad in 2010, and when Tim Cook showed off the Apple Watch in 2014.

But the headset isn’t the only thing we got in the WWDC keynote. Since it’s a developer conference, it’s also about the software for all of our devices. This includes iOS 17 for the iPhone, along with iPadOS 17, watchOS 10, and macOS 14 Sonoma.

Read more
iOS 17’s coolest new feature is horrible news for Android users
iOS 17 contact posters

At the end of 2022, Google implored Apple to “get the message” and end the green-versus-blue bubble controversy by adopting RCS messaging. Apple’s response eventually came at WWDC 2023, where it introduced a new iOS 17 feature called Contact Posters, which instead of bringing everyone together, only furthers the us-versus-them split between Android and iOS.

If you thought the green/blue iMessage arguments could get fiery, there’s a lot more to come.
Blue good, green bad

Read more