Twitter adds support for animated GIFs to web and mobile apps

One of the most popular image types that show up on the internet are animated GIFs. We have all seen a GIF before, they're the small looping image that is sort of like a video. Typically, the GIF highlights the funniest part of a longer standard video.

Twitter has announced that it has added support for animated GIFs to its service; this is the first time the popular image format has been supported on the site. In addition to adding GIF support on the web, Twitter has also added support for GIFs to the iOS and Android apps.

GIFs will show up just as Vine videos show up, with a play button on top. To start the animation, you will need to press the play button. Having a play button may be a good thing for some users since the GIF won't start running automatically when you scroll to it, using your data and slowing things down if, you don't want to see it.