Have you ever had friend send you GIFs in a text and wondered how they did that? Wonder no more, we’re here to help you download a GIF keyboard for your iPhone so you can also send hilarious GIF texts to your friends and family.
What is a GIF?
We often hear the word “GIF” but what does it actually mean? Well, it stands for Graphics Interchange Format, meaning that it is a special format used for photos and videos. With the rise of social media GIFs have become widely popular due to their portability. Nowadays most of the GIFs are short video animations but they can also be in simple picture format.
How to get a GIF keyboard on iMessage
If your iPhone has iOS 10 or a later version installed, you will be able to use built-in GIFs directly in the iMessage app, this GIF keyboard is called #images.
To add a GIF to a text start by opening Messages on your iPhone and typing something. Then, press the A icon, which should be located on the left side of the text field. At this point the #images keyboard should come up right away. If it doesn’t, find an icon with four circles in the lower left corner of the screen and then select #images keyboard. You can now look at different GIFs and even search them to choose a GIF that you want to include in your text.
Best GIF keyboards and how to get them
If you want to have more GIF options you can download of the popular third-party GIF keyboards. The most popular keyboards out there are called simply GIF Keyboard and GIPHY. These are free to download and use and you can get them by downloading the app in App Store or by adding them though iMessage App Store directly.
To add one of these keyboards through Messages, press Store button that has a + on it and type in the name of the keyboard that you want to add. Once you add the keyboard in the iMessages app, the main app for this keyboard will also be downloaded are will appear on your home screen.
If you decide to download the keyboard app from App Store, the keyboard will be added to iMessages automatically. GIPHY CAM, GIF Keyboard and lots of other apps also allow you to create your own GIFs that you can use in text messages, which can be lots of fun if you have a close-knit group of friends, for example.
