How to Create Your Own Animated GIFs for iPhone

Animated GIFs are making a comeback. Once a cool website decoration in early days of the Internet, GIFs are booming in a totally different way. People post animated GIFs on social networks or send them in messages and typically use them as a quirky way to react to someone else’s comment.

Despite the growing popularity, making animated GIFs is no easy task. Fortunately, a new app called Giphy Cam makes it far easier than before to create your own using your iPhone’s camera and tons of different optional effects.

Make Your Animated GIF

Compared to the steps necessary to create an animated GIF in Photoshop, Giphy Cam is hilariously easy to use. Just open up the Giphy Cam app to bring up your camera and Giphy Cam will explain that you have two GIF options. You can either tap the Shutter button once to create an animated GIF using burst mode or press and hold the Shutter button to record a video that converts into an animated GIF.

Note: If you opt for burst mode, Giphy Cam will take five different shots and then play them together pretty quickly.

The loops work slightly differently for each mode. In burst mode, the GIF will play forward and then in reverse before it begins looping. When you choose to record a video, that only plays forward and then loop.

Personally, I found burst mode more fun because it goes forward and backward and is a bit more comical to look at. But everyone has their own preferences.

Customize It with Dozens of Effects

Giphy Cam has tons of different effects to give your animated GIFs a touch of creativity. They’re separated into a number of categories underneath the camera view.

You have regular filters which look much like Instagram filters in that they alter the coloring a bit. Then there’s “reactions” which are just some odd animations that are meant to carry a message with them like smiley faces or tears.

After that is the magic wand effect which “magically” adds backgrounds to the GIF. I tested it out in multiple locations with multiple backdrops and it worked pretty terribly each time, so steer clear from this effect.

Overlays add various decorations and animations that stay above your image. The final category, Party, is all overlays too except they’re all specifically party-themed, as one might imagine.

In total, there are over 40 overlays and effects to mess around with. Unfortunately, you can only apply one at a time though. They’re still pretty funny and I managed to chuckle more than a few times trying different ones on. I especially enjoy the sliding sunglasses and “Deal with it” mantra.

Share It

When you’re done creating your GIF masterpiece, you can save it to your camera roll or share it in a message, Facebook message, tweet, Instagram post or email. The app also provides a Share sheet for any other services you might want to share it to.

If you share it to Instagram, the GIF will convert into a video. If you save it to your camera roll, the GIF for some reason loses its animation. Hopefully this is just a temporary bug.

Experiment with different modes and effects and get creative. You’ll be an expert in a GIF-fy.

Tip: Did you know “GIF” is actually pronounced like “JIF” rather than with a hard “G” sound? The creator of the animated GIF said so himself.

Which App Do You Use?

Let us know which one was your favorite or which one do you use on a daily basis and why? Join us in our forums section for a detailed conversation.