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.

Recommended Videos

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 (Tortured Writer) (@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.

Cristina Alexander
Gaming/Mobile Writer
Cristina Alexander is a gaming and mobile writer at Digital Trends. She blends fair coverage of games industry topics that…
5 rumored iOS 26 features we could see at WWDC 2025
An iPhone 16 laying on a shelf with its screen on.

Apple’s upcoming WWDC 2025 showcase is going to be a busy one, even though the expected AI-powered software rebirth may not land until next year. In the meantime, reliable sources have spilled the beans on what we might expect for the next major iOS overhaul. 

Starting with the name, Apple could skip iOS 19 and could go straight from v18 to v26. We are also expecting a design overhaul, something that could draw inspiration from Vision OS. On the functional side, an AI health coach would be a huge draw for fitness enthusiasts. 

Read more
iOS 19 isn’t coming this fall … because Apple is calling it something else
The back of the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Apple will unveil the latest version of the iPhone operating system at WWDC next month, but apparently it won’t be “iOS 19.”

The tech giant is going to shake up the naming system for iOS, with the next version set to be called iOS 26, according to a Bloomberg report by prominent Apple tipster Mark Gurman on Wednesday.

Read more
5 lost iOS features I want to see return in iOS 19
Siri being shown on an iPhone 15 Pro on iOS 18.

In the second week of June, Apple will likely give the world a glimpse of its jazzed-up operating systems at WWDC 2025, and a major redesign is expected for iOS 19. Though I’ve always yearned for a return to the skeuomorphism look, we are hearing that Apple is eying a unified aesthetic language that is more reminiscent of Vision OS running on its uber-expensive headset.

A lot of eyes and ears will hunt for AI-related announcements, especially in the wake of Apple Intelligence flubs and delays. On the more practical side of things, an AI fitness coach might land this year with the iOS 19 update. But after going through all the hype and rumors, I hope Apple brings back the following features that it abandoned years ago, but with a modern makeover: 

Read more