Twitter opens the high-quality GIF floodgates with new expanded size limit

By Saqib Shah July 11, 2016

twitter — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Twitter is continuing its trend of increasing the size limit for media uploads on its platforms, with its latest update concerning GIFs.

A number of experienced Twitter users who boast a strong GIF game have spotted the change, which allows you to upload animated GIF files of up to 15MB. The previous size limit for both photos and GIFs on Twitter was just 5MB, although there has been no change to the former.

There are some glaring restrictions in line with the update at present. The increased GIF size only applies to Twitter for the web, meaning you’re still restricted to puny GIFs on mobile for the time being. Additionally, the change does not apply to Twitter clients, such as TweetDeck or Hootsuite. The high-quality GIF party is therefore currently the domain of Twitter’s flagship platform.

Among the keen-eyed Twitter users who tweeted about the update (using a carefully selected, wholly appropriate, GIF) were Marvel’s VP of digital media, Ryan Penagos; and ex-Twitter engineering manager Ian Chan, who shared a glorious GIF of The Matrix in its entirety.

Twitter increased gif upload limit. Now I can finally share the entire Matrix movie in a tweet! (cc @KingJames) pic.twitter.com/xpxNvm835b

— Ian Chan (@chanian) July 12, 2016

This is exactly the type of mayhem that will now ensue, as everyone on Twitter ditches text to communicate solely through GIFs. OK, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration. However, seeing as some prominent social media industry insiders think that text is actually doomed, perhaps it is a lot closer to the truth than many of us are willing to believe.

Twitter itself rolled out the change extremely quietly, although it has been noted in its photo FAQ guidelines, according to The Verge. The platform has made several similar changes in regard to its products. Most recently, it extended the time limit for video uploads on both Twitter and Vine, to 140 seconds.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Saqib Shah is a Twitter addict and film fan with an obsessive interest in pop culture trends. In his spare time he can be…

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