GIFs are a fun way to communicate. They’re all the craze now, and everyone seems to be sending GIFs on WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, and various other messenger apps.
But how can you find or make your own GIFs? Today, I will talk about various GIF apps for WhatsApp that you can use to create unique GIFs, find GIFs, and share GIFs.
What Are GIFs?
A GIF is a type of media file, just like a PNG or JPEG file. However, a GIF is an animated image.
Usually, people share GIFs to convey an emotion, mood, or feeling. Most GIFs are funny and humorous and they are sometimes taken from movies, films, or shows.
At other times, people create unique GIFs using their own images.
Let us get into the list now.
The 10 Best GIF Apps For WhatsApp
1. GIPHY
GIPHY is both a website and a mobile app. I believe it is the best resource for finding funny and interesting GIFs to share with friends on WhatsApp.
GIPHY is probably the most well-known GIF library online. It’s like Pixabay or Getty Images, but for GIFs.
GIPHY is free to use – you can search through over a whopping one billion GIFs and use them for free. GIPHY’s GIFs are not meant to be used for commercial purposes (such as for advertising to your clients), but it is perfectly fine to use them when chatting with friends and family on WhatsApp.
In the “Trending” section, you can find trending GIFs. It’s a great way to show your sons and daughters that are you up to date on current trends and memes!
You can also browse artists or search the app to find a GIF for a specific purpose. For example, if someone asks you for a favor and you want to say “no way,” just type “no way” into the search bar, and you will find related GIFs.
Trending searches right now include “good morning” and “relaxing.” Just search for any phrase or mood.
In addition to GIFs, you can find:
- Animated text
- Stickers and animated stickers
- Animated emojis
So, once you find a GIF you like, how can you share it on WhatsApp? The easiest way is to find the share button, which kind of looks like a Telegram icon.
Click on that and a bunch of social media options will pop up. Click on the WhatsApp icon and you will be taken to a list of people you recently talked to.
Select one or more of those people – you can also share it to your WhatsApp status – and then click on send to send the GIF to them.
It’s really that easy!
In addition to all the GIFs in the app, you can create your own GIFs! Creating your own GIFs allows you to be unique and share special moments.
To create a GIF, click on the Create button in the top right corner. Using your Camera, take a 1-2 second video, which will be turned into GIF.
You can take a video of yourself making a funny facial expression, of your friends doing stuff, or of your dog barking and acting funny.
You can then edit your GIF before publishing it. You can crop it, trim it, add stickers, add text, add a frame, and a lot more!
Play around a little to get a feel for the GIF creation tool. It might take a try or two to figure out, but once you figure out how to use it, it is actually pretty fun.
The GIPHY app comes with a GIPHY keyboard. If you set the GIPHY keyboard as your default keyboard, you will be able to share GIPHY GIFs straight from your keyboard while typing in your chats.
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2. WhatsApp GIFs
Okay, this isn’t a separate app, but many people don’t know that WhatsApp has a built-in GIF library. Since the library is built into the app, you will save time – you won’t have to leave WhatsApp to find GIFs, which can be a big relief if your phone is slow and takes time to switch between apps.
To open the GIF library, click the little smiley face emoji icon in the WhatsApp text bar. By default, you will be shown emojis.
Look at the bottom of the screen, in the center, and you will find the option to switch over to the GIF or sticker library. Select the “GIF” icon and you will see trending GIFs that you can share.
The GIFs you see first will be the ones most shared right now, but you can search for GIFs as well. Look at the bottom left hand of the screen to see the search icon – click on it and enter a phrase, emotion, or feeling, such as “have a great day.”
The WhatsApp GIF library is powered by GIPHY. Although you will be able to browse a lot better and find more stuff using the GIPHY app, the WhatsApp GIF library is pretty good too, and it will save you time and effort.
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3. Tenor
Tenor is another great app. There are actually two ways to use Tenor to find GIFs for WhatsApp.
The first way is to simply use the app like you would use GIPHY. The app has an extensive library of GIFs of all types.
You can select from the trending GIFs that show up on the home page, or you can use the search bar to search for a specific GIF or GIFs for a particular occasion or mood.
You can also upload and create your own GIFs, though you need to sign up for an account to do that.
That’s one way to use Tenor. The other way is to use the Tenor GIF keyboard, which allows you to find and share GIFs as you are typing.
It’s a novel idea, really, but other keyboards now allow you to do the same thing. Just like most keyboards allow you to insert emojis into whatever you are typing, the Tenor GIF keyboard allows you to find and insert GIFs.
When you are typing, you will be able to click on the GIPHY icon in the top left corner of the keyboard to search for GIPHY GIFs (the Tenor keyboard is powered by GIPHY).
Just click on a GIF and it will automatically be sent to the other person you are chatting with.
Also, you can select from the top trending search phrases, which will appear in the top bar of the keyboard, to find related GIFs.
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4. G Board
G Board is Google’s own keyboard app. Although it is the Google Keyboard, it is also available on iOS devices (here is the iOS link).
I prefer to use the Google Keyboard on all my phones – that’s just my personal preference. One of the things I like about G Board is that it has a built-in GIF library and sharing function, just like the Tenor GIF keyboard.
Just click on “GIF” at the top of the keyboard to see trending GIFs. You will also see top phrases and themes, like:
- Miss you
- Wink
- Hungry
- Dance
You can also click on the little search icon to search for GIFs.
Once you find a GIF you like, simply click on it. It will automatically be sent in the chat.
In addition to GIFs, you can also click on the sticker icon to find interesting and funny stickers to send to your friends. G Board even integrates with Bitmoji, which is an app that allows you to create stickers that feature your face.
While G Board is not a “ GIF app,” I think it is one of the best ways to share GIFs on WhatsApp and other messaging apps without installing additional apps.
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5. GIF Guru
I love GIF Guru, an Android app, because it allows you to create your own GIFs from images and videos quickly and easily.
To create a GIF from a few images, just select Create GIF, and then select Images to GIF. Select a few images – the app will create a GIF slideshow of those images.
You can change the duration of how long each image is shown, and you can also add a filter or a text/sticker overlay. In addition, you can select Video to GIF to turn part of a video clip on your phone into a GIF.
It’s a lot easier to make a video first and then turn it into a GIF than to use a built-in GIF camera. However, GIF Guru does have a GIF camera you can use as well.
Just record a short video by holding down the record button for a few seconds.
In addition to creating your own GIFs, you can use GIFs from the library. Just click on the Search GIF option, where you will have the option to browse and search GIFs – personally, however, I think GIPHY has a better selection.
You can also upload GIFs from your computer and edit them, which I thought was pretty cool.
GIF Guru is free to use, but there is a premium version, which has perks such as no watermark. It has a free trial and costs $14.99/year, but always check back in the app for updated pricing information.
6. iFunny
iFunny is an awesome, huge library of GIFs, funny memes, and funny video clips. It’s a big mix of all three, so you won’t find only GIFs there – but there are still plenty of GIFs in the results that are humorous, funny, and can get your message across.
You don’t need to create an account to use iFunny. Just browse featured media or use the search bar to search by hashtag – to use the search bar, click on Explore in the drop-down menu.
When you find a GIF you like, click on the Share icon at the bottom right of the screen. Then, you will see a list of apps you can share the GIF to.
Select the WhatsApp icon and then select a chat to share it to. You can also download the GIF to your phone or select one of the other messaging apps you use.
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7. WhatSmiley
WhatSmiley is a cool little Android app with stickers and GIF packs that you can add to WhatsApp. For GIFs, click on the GIF tab at the top of the screen; otherwise, browse through the various animated emojis and stickers, organized by theme.
To share a GIF, go to the GIFs section, find a GIF you like, and click on it. A WhatsApp share button will automatically appear at the bottom of the screen, along with various other sharing options.
Click on the WhatsApp share icon and select the chat you want to send the GIF to.
Click on the Packages section at the top right of the screen to see various packs of stickers and GIFs. You can add packs to WhatsApp easily with the built-in Add to WhatsApp button, and then find those GIFs and stickers in the sticker section on WhatsApp while you are typing.
8. Gif Me
Gif Me is an excellent GIF maker and GIF editor app for Android devices. It is very simple and easy to use, and it is free, too.
You can create a GIF by uploading several images from your gallery. The app will create a GIF slideshow, which you can edit by:
- Speeding it up or slowing it down (changing the duration of how long each slide is shown)
- Changing the filter
- Adding a frame
- Adding text to the image
- Adding stickers to the slideshow
- Changing the order of the images in the slideshow
You can also upload a video to create a GIF out of the video. Finally, you can use the built-in GIF camera to take a quick video and turn it into a GIF.
The Gif Me app is supported by ads. If you want to remove ads, you can do so by paying for the premium version.
Right now, Gif Me Camera Pro is available as a separate app for just $1.49 (that is a one-time fee). Always check the app store for updated pricing information.
9. GIF Maker – Pixster Studio
This Android app is pretty cool for creating GIFs because it allows you to upload various media types to create a single GIF. For example, you can upload an image, a video, and a GIF and turn those three into a single GIF.
You will need the Pro version of the app to do that. However, the Pro version can actually be obtained for free by completing any three out of the following four tasks:
- Share the app to your WhatsApp status (you can edit your WhatsApp status privacy settings beforehand to control who sees it)
- Share the app to Facebook
- Share the app to Twitter
- Rate the app on the Play Store
There’s actually no way to pay for the Pro version right now – you can only get it by completing three out of the above tasks.
Even if you don’t have the Pro version, however, you can still use the app’s other features.
For example, you can turn images into a GIF. First, you will need to select the ratio (1:1, 3:4, 4:3, etc.) and then select between 4 and 200 images.
The GIF editor is not as advanced as some other apps, but you can still do some basic editing. Also, you can turn a video into a GIF and edit existing GIFs that you have on your phone.
Also, you can search for new GIFs to share with your WhatsApp contacts. The app uses the Tenor search engine to find GIFs.
10. Love GIF – Touchzing
Sometimes, all you want to do is send romantic GIFs to your significant other, whether that is your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, friend with benefits, or just someone you have been dating.
Instead of downloading an entire GIF library or a whole GIF keyboard, consider downloading the Love GIF Android app by Touchzing Media. It is a GIF library that has only love-related and romantic GIFs.
Click on Get Started to start finding GIFs. You can browse the popular section to find all kinds of romantic GIFs, and you can favorite GIFs and save them for later.
You can also browse by category:
- I Love You GIFs
- Love GIFs
- Sweet Love GIFs
- Romantic Girlfriend GIFs
- And many others
Once you see a GIF you like, click on it. You can either download it directly to your phone or you can click on the share icon to find a list of apps you use – select WhatsApp to find a chat and send the GIF to it.
The one downside of this app, which I found a bit annoying, is that there are a lot of ads. All those ads make the app less user-friendly than apps like GIPHY.
Wrapping It Up: What Is The Best GIF App For WhatsApp?
I would say that GIPHY is the best app for finding GIFs to send to your friends. You can also create GIFs using the built-in GIF camera or make the GIPHY keyboard your default keyboard.
Remember that WhatsApp has its own built-in GIF library and search engine powered by GIPHY.
Ben Levin is a Hubspot certified content marketing professional and SEO expert with 6 years of experience and a strong passion for writing and blogging. His areas of specialty include personal finance, tech, and marketing. He loves exploring new topics and has also written about HVAC repair to dog food recommendations. Ben is currently pursuing a bachelor’s in computer science, and his hobbies include motorcycling, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and Muay Thai.