A Facebook GIF maker has been rolled out to the iOS version of the social media app, giving users an easy way to create GIFs.
The new feature comes a month after Facebook finally rolled out a GIF button for comments on the social network, in celebration of the GIF's 30th birthday.
Facebook GIF Maker On iOS
The new Facebook GIF maker feature for the iOS version of the social media app was spotted by The Next Web's Matt Navarra.
The feature, however, is not yet available to all users. Facebook confirmed that the GIF maker is currently in testing phase and is only accessible to a handful of users, but it is being gradually rolled out.
Users can access the Facebook GIF maker by first bringing up the Facebook Camera, which can be done by swiping left while on the app's News Feed. For lucky users who are part of the testing phase, the top portion of the app will display two modes: Normal and GIF.
While in GIF mode, the Facebook Camera can record footage for a few seconds and then transforms the video to GIF files. Users will be able to use all the frames and filters available to the Facebook Camera, but they can only share the GIF in Facebook Stories or as a Facebook post. The GIFs created by the Facebook GIF maker could not be sent to other services, and if the user save them, they are converted back to videos.
This means that the GIFs created by the new feature could not be used outside of Facebook, forcing users to share their creations only within the social network. This could be seen by users as a severe limitation, but Facebook only wants the content that users create through its tools to remain on its platform.
There is no word yet on when the Facebook GIF maker will arrive to the app's Android version, but it will likely not take long.
Facebook And GIFs
The relationship between Facebook and GIFs did not start out well, as the social network was slow to adopt the medium because it believed that GIFs would make the News Feed chaotic.
However, Facebook has warmed up to the animated images, starting with adding GIF support in 2015. In addition to recently enabling GIF comments to celebrate the 30th birthday of GIFs, the social network launched friendship-themed GIFs that can be sent to others through Messenger as part of Friends Day, Facebook's 13th birthday.
