By Conner Carey updated on 02/20/2017
If you’re looking to learn how to save a gif on iPhone, you’ve come to the right place. Saving a gif on iPhone is easy to do, and once you learn, you can save all the funny gifs from Tumblr you want. What is a gif? It’s a short moving picture on a loop; it’s also called a moving meme and is popular across many platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. Gifs are not the same as the iPhone moving pictures known as Live Photos. You can download or save a gif easily on your iPhone; however, you can also use an app to start your collection of gifs. We’ll go over both methods of how to save a gif on iPhone below. Here’s how to download gifs and send them via Messages and email. We'll also cover how to post gis on Twitter, on Facebook, and upload them to Tumblr.
Table of Contents:
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How to Use a Gif Downloader App To Save Gifs
How to Share a Gif via Messages and Email or on Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr
How to Save Gifs to iPhone
Save a Gif in Two Steps (iOS 10 or later)
Let’s say you’re browsing the web and come across a gif you want to save:
- If you have an iPhone with 3D Touch: Tap the image activating 3D Touch.
- When it pops out, swipe up.
- Tap Save Image.
- If you have an iPhone without 3D Touch: Tap and hold the image.
- Tap Save Image.
Navigate to your Photos app. The image will appear as a still photo in your Photos app, however if you want to play gifs on your iPhone, when you go to send that image via Messages or by Mail, it will come back to life.
Save a Gif in Two Steps (iOS 9 or earlier)
If you have iOS 10 or later but have an iPhone without 3D Touch, this tip will also work for you. Once you’ve found the gif you want to save to iPhone:
- Tap and hold the image.
- A box will pop up with the option to Save Image or Copy.
- Tap Save Image.
Navigate to your Photos app. The image will appear as a still photo in your Photos app, however if you want to play gifs on your iPhone, when you go to send that image via Messages or by Mail, it will come back to life.
Use a Gif Downloader App To Save Gifs
Alternatively, you can download a gif app that will allow you to find, save, and create a collection of your favorite gifs. If you don’t want your gif addiction taking up space in your Photos app, this is a great option. It can also be a way to find gifs that wouldn’t necessarily be on big gif sites such as Giphy but can be found in the wide world of Tumblr or Reddit. This is for the dedicated gif collector.
My choices for the best gif apps are GIFwrapped and GifPlayer Free. GifPlayer is nice for finding rarer gifs from sites like Tumblr, Reddit, and more. But you’ll notice that when you search on some sites, it’s not clear how to save the gif. GIFwrapped, on the other hand, doesn’t allow you to visit different websites within the app, which limits your gif discovery in some ways but makes it easier to save gifs overall. Both apps allow you to save the gifs you’ve found to your in-app library. We'll use GIFwrapped for our example, but the process is basically the same for both.
To Save a Gif from Using GIFwrapped (Free):
- Find the gif you want to save to the app.
- Tap and hold the gif.
- Select Save to Library.
- If you already know that you want to share the gif you’ve found, you can also tap Share Image to directly share it with friends.
How to Send Gifs Via Messages and Email
If you have a gif saved to your Photos app, you can easily share it with friends via the Messages app or over email. You can also share a Gif on Facebook, on Tumblr, and on Twitter. When you go to share the gif from Photos, it will appear still. But once you’ve sent the gif, it will reanimate. To share a gif:
- Find the gif you want to share in the Photos app.
- Tap the Share button.
- Select how you want to share the gif: Message, Mail, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Tumblr, etc.
- For example, tap Message and choose who to send it to.
- Tap Send, which is an up arrow in iOS 10 or later.
Here's the sloth gif we used in most of the examples above:
Top Image Credit: guteksk7 / Shutterstock.com
