Facebook is finally embracing the GIF, after many years of resisting the change.
According to TechCrunch, Facebook will begin testing a GIF button that allows users to post GIFs from services such as Giphy or Tenor as comments.
“Everyone loves a good GIF, and we know that people want to be able to use them in comments. SO we’re about to start testing the ability to add GIFs to comments, and we’ll share more when we can, but for now we repeat that this is just a test,” Facebook said in a statement.
As per usual with any Facebook tests, the new feature will only be available to a small group of Facebook users, but it has the potential to roll out to everyone if it proves popular. Taking into consideration the high usage of GIFs on other platforms, it’s pretty much certain that we’ll all see this feature in our news feeds soon.
Borrowing from Messenger
The feature will apparently work similarly to the GIF button you can find in Facebook Messenger, allowing users to browse trending animations, or to search for specific reactions. While sharing GIFs as News Feed posts won’t be possible, you will be able to comment on other people’s posts with them.
For many years now, Facebook has shied away from fully embracing GIFs, mostly out of “fear” that it would distract users from the News Feed and what it is supposed to be at the core – a way to connect to your friends and to find out the latest things they are interested in.
Then again, this was a valid concern back before the News Feed became inundated with auto-play videos that are just as flashy and distracting, and even more annoying than the GIFs. While some changes have been made to permit GIFs, namely to share them with direct URLs, this is the first time sharing them will be made easy.
