GIFs are ancient, but still very popular. Finally, they offer a great compromise of photo and video: Often a photo is not expressive enough but a video is too elaborate. This is where an animated image like the GIF is ideal, especially for social media and for memes.
Where to find beautiful GIFs for your communication is not the issue here, there are countless sources for that. In Apple news app such search is even integrated. Much more likely, as a user of iPhone and Mac, you wonder: how do you build some yourself? We can recommend three methods at once:
1. Video about GIF with WhatsApp –
The easiest way to convert a video is provided by the app WhatsApp. Here is a comfortable GIF creator integrated. You can also use the created GIFs later for other messengers or Twitter.
Tap on the plus sign in WhatsApp and select a video.
The video opens in an edit view, at the top you now have to pick a spot up to six seconds long – the later GIF
Now tap on the "GIF" icon, a GIF will be created and inserted in the selected chat.
You can also save this GIF and use it in other media.
The advantage: the editor offers even more options, such as adding text and smileys
2. Convert live photo to a GIF
A live photo from an iPhone can be converted into a GIF very easily. This is possible directly through the photo library.
Open one of your live photos, they are collected in the album "Livephotos"
Tap in the middle of the photo and drag your finger upwards – without putting it down first.
The editor for live photos opens and offers four filter options.
You can get a GIF if you select either the "bounce" or "infinite loop" filter.
Tap on this effect. Automatically a GIF is created and saved in the animated folder.
You can now send these GIFs directly from the folder or select the folder from another app
You can also easily create a GIF from an older live photo this way. Tip: In order for your camera to create live photos, a yellow icon with several concentric rings must be active in the top right corner of the camera image.
3. Photos to GIF with shortcut
You don’t have a video, but want to combine several photos in the iPhone media library to a GIF? This is possible via a shortcut that just needs to be activated in the Shortcuts app.
Open the app Shortcuts and tap the command "Convert photos to GIFs" in the gallery.
In the upper right corner you will see a circle with three dots in the called command, on which you have to tap.
You will now see a "Details" window where you can assign some options to the shortcut: Here you enable "Go to home screen" and "Photos" to allow access to the photo library.
With the option "Go to home screen" this shortcut can be called like a new app on the home screen. Open the shortcut you can select multiple photos in the library, a GIF will be created automatically
The finished GIF is displayed, you can either save it in the photo library or transfer it to Whats-App and Co with the arrow icon.
The shortcut can also be included in the share menu, also via the Details window. You can then call the command directly from other programs.
…And, of course, there are countless more specialized apps and services for this purpose, such as Giphy. Also, don’t forget about the app Boomerang .