GIF

Coming soon to Allo for iOS: animated emoji, revamped GIF picker, and one-tap Google Assistant

Allo, Google's cross-platform messaging app for iPhone, Android and the web which made its debut at Google I/O in March 2016, will soon receive three major enhancements. The first integrates Assistant, Google's conversational AI helper, deeper so you can access it with a single tap.

Aside from improved Assistant access, Allo will let you browse GIFs to add to your messages easier than before with a redesigned picker, plus use animated emojis in chats.

Keep in mind that these new features will be rolling out on Android starting today, and will come to iOS soon (don't worry, we'll keep you posted).

AntennaGIFDL lets you download GIFs from the Antenna Reddit client app

If you prefer the Antenna Reddit client over the default app from the service itself, then you’re probably familiar with the fact that it lacks a way to download animated GIF images when viewing them from the app.

A new free jailbreak tweak called AntennaGIFDL fixes that by building in a way to download animated GIF images from the Antenna app straight to your device’s Camera Roll.

WhatsApp for iPhone gains GIF search feature

Facebook-owned WhatsApp two days ago gained support for sending and receiving animated GIFs, as well as sending short videos or Live Photos as GIF attachments. Today the team issued a small update to WhatsApp's iPhone application in the App Store, bumping version number to 2.16.16 and adding another handy feature: a built-in option that lets you find animated GIFs to attach to your messages from within the app.

How to quickly create fun GIFs in iMessage using the Tumblr app

The other day I made a rare visit to my iMessage App Store. Amongst a multitude of others, Tumblr, an App that never fully struck a chord with me, had add an iMessage app to my ‘Manage’ tab, silently begging for me to take it for a spin. I sighed and flicked the switch on, not knowing what to expect from the extension - and have not looked back since.

DayNightSwitch adds a day/night theme to toggle switches in iOS

DayNightSwitch is a new free jailbreak tweak that adds a little bit of character to the toggle switches throughout iOS you use on a regular basis by theming their on and off positions to reflect day or night.

With the tweak installed, you're going to notice switches that get toggled to the "on" position display a blue sky with a little Sun and cloud icon, and switches that get toggled to the "off" position display a black sky with a little Moon icon and stars in the background.

AutoPaste makes using GIF keyboards easier on jailbroken iPhones

There are a lot of people out there who love using GIF images as a way of expressing their feelings, and it would seem that jailbreak developer Ryan Petrich is no different.

With a new beta jailbreak tweak release he's calling AutoPaste, he aims to make sharing GIF images in your favorite messaging apps with third-party GIF keyboards from the App Store faster and easier than before.

iOS 10’s Safari improves animated GIF experience, prevents spammy videos from autoplaying

Among other enhancements, Safari on iOS 10 boosts the animated GIF experience for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users while preventing spammy autoplay videos from interrupting your browsing, according to the WebKit blog. On iOS 9, an animated GIF won't start playing until it's tapped.

With the new Safari, silent videos autoplay on webpages when they're visible because iOS 10 respects their “autoplay” attribute when source video tracks have no audio or have been muted.

But if a video gains an audio track without user interaction, like those spammy autoplay video ads on websites, playback automatically pauses.

New Google app turns Live Photos into animated GIFs and movies with cinematic backgrounds

Google today announced it's launching a brand new iPhone application aimed at those who wish to turn their Live Photos into animated GIFs. Aptly named Motion Stills, the app turns Live Photos into Motion Stills with Google’s stabilization technology and cinematic backgrounds.

These Motion Stills can then be shared as looping GIFs on social media. Motion Stills is available free in the App Store.

Viber gains iCloud backup, support for sending money, animated GIFs and more

Messaging service Viber this morning pushed a new update to its App Store app, adding several new long overdue features. For starters, iPhone users can now back up and restore their chat history through iCloud, making keeping their conversations after an iOS restore possible.

The application now has a brand new native watchOS 2 app for your wrist with canned responses on your Apple Watch. Other new features in this edition of Viber include support for sending and receiving animated GIF images, sending money from within the app and low-rate Viber Out calling plans via a redesigned screen.