Before we excitedly jump in and talk about how to comments GIFs on Facebook, take a moment to wish a happy 30th birthday to one of the most popular image formats — the GIF. It is courtesy of the said occasion that the social media giant has decided to make the ability to post GIFs in the comments section available to its massive 2 billion user base.
Facebook already allowed you to flood your own (or your dear friend’s) wall with hilarious GIFs but the users have been asking to allow them to respond to status updates with GIFs as well. It seems the social networking giant has finally answered their demands and is allowing you to post GIFs in comments, starting today.
The GIF button that’s being added to the comments text box will enable y’all to search and post relevant files that will surface from different services such as Giphy and Tenor. This option will be available both on the desktop and mobile platforms, where a click on the GIF button shows the trending alternatives. It is also a global wide-spread release, not restricted by geographical boundaries.
In addition to the new GIF sharing feature, Facebook is celebrating the occasion by organizing a GIF party along with some of the most popular internet sensations. It has also shared statistics of the growth of this extremely popular format on the social platform.
Facebook, in the official blog post, mentions that around 13 billion have been shared via Facebook Messenger just in the previous year, after support for the same was added to the platform. And the New Year’s has been termed as the busiest day for sharing of GIFs across the globe, where 400 million files were sent and received on the messaging service.
Facebook is also opening up the wide-spread debate over how GIF should be pronounced — with a hard g or soft g. And to involve us in this debate, the social media giant is conducting a poll on its platform for U.S-based users. While the end result may result in some friction but sharing another handful of GIFs would lead to a peaceful resolution.
