Facebook has announced the imminent release of smoothly integrating animated GIFs into posts as well as messenger conversations.

Add a bit of animation to your discussions

Users will soon be able to utilise third party services, such as Tenor and Giphy, to post GIFs as comments on Facebook.

Facebook Messenger has allowed for keyboard functions of adding GIFs in conversation for some time, but now they’re bringing the popular function to comment sections of time lines.

With a very similar interface, users will be able to search and preview multiple GIFs from trending categories to share them as efficiently as Messenger.

Facebook no longer deems GIFs to be distracting

In the past, the social network largely considered GIFs to be infringing on the overall aesthetic of Facebook’s presentation.

With the advent of auto-play videos, users began to acclimatise to less static pages, but without support from Facebook itself, could only post links to sites like Tumblr and Imgur to share this growing visual, but silent, medium.

Segmented clips of popular film and television have already established themselves as a favoured comment or status response amongst social media users. What was once considered flashy is fast becoming the norm and Facebook is determined to adapt. 

Do you use GIFs in your marketing mix? Let us know how in the Comments?