Some people would say that WhatsApp Messenger (now WhatsApp for Facebook), which is used by more than 2 billion people worldwide, is the most popular messaging platform.
It can be used on Android and iOS phones and a computer (macOS and Windows PC).
GIFs and WhatsApp
GIFs, which stand for “Graphics Interchange Format,” are a type of image file called a “bitmap” (map of bits). Most GIFs only last a second or two at most.
GIFs can be sent over WhatsApp on any supported platform, including Android, iOS, and WhatsApp Web.
On Android
Make sure your account is active on your phone before you share GIFs. Once this is done, carefully follow these steps:
- If you tap the WhatsApp icon, it will open. It opens to the “Chats” tab by default, which shows a list of chats.
- You need to know to who you want to send the GIF. This could be a one-on-one chat or a chat with a group. Find that chat by scrolling or navigating, and then tap on it. There will be messages.
- Tap the box with the text. The keyboard of your phone will be shown.
- Tap the smiley face icon to the left of the text box to get to a GIF. The smiley faces and other symbols you’ve used recently will be shown.
- Below the emojis, you’ll see a bar with three icons: one for smileys, one for GIFs, and one for stickers. Tap the one with the GIF.
- You can now move up and down the list of GIFs. Choose the one you think best gets your point across.
- It will zoom in on the “Send GIF” screen, where you can add a caption.
- Then you can tap the green button that says “Send”. You were able to send your GIF.
On iOS
On iOS, it’s much easier to send GIFs than on Android, and the process isn’t hard to figure out.
- If you tap on the icon for WhatsApp, the app will open.
- Start a chat with the person or group you want to send the GIF to.
- When the app opens, tap the “+” icon right to the left of the text box where you type messages.
- There will be a button labelled “Photo and Video Library” on the screen that opens up when you click the link. This shows pictures, clips, and videos from the store near you.
- Tap the GIF button next to the magnifying glass icon in the bottom-left corner.
- If you want, add a caption, and then send it.
On Web
Both macOS and Windows PCs should be the same:
- The WhatsApp Web screen will show your account after you scan the QR code.
- Tap the conversation to which you want to send the GIF. The chat will be on the right side of the screen, taking up most of the space.
- In the conversation window’s lower left corner, click the smiling face icon. Click on “GIF.” On the Internet, there are several tabs with names like “Trending,” “Haha,” “Sad,” “Love,” “Reactions,” “Sport,” and “TV.” With these tabs, you can choose very specific GIFs.
- Tap any tab, choose a GIF, and send it after adding a caption.
Easy, right?
It’s easy to send a GIF. We can talk to each other better with GIFs. When words alone aren’t enough to get a message across, GIFs are there to help.
Try sending a funny GIF today instead of typing “haha” or sending the “laughing” emoji.