Liven up your tweets and direct messages on Twitter with animated GIFs

The next time you tweet out an update or message someone on Twitter, try adding a little flair to your tweets or direct messages in the form of animated GIFs.

Earlier in the week, the micro-blogging startup announced it’s integrating a dedicated GIF search button in its mobile apps and on twitter.com to help you add that viral kitten GIF to your posts without leaving the compose window.

Twitter’s partnered with Giphy and Riffsy to help you find the right GIF animation to express your mood. You can search GIFs by keyword, or browse categories of different reactions like Happy Dance, Mic Drop, YOLO and more.

The new GIF button is located between the photo and polls options, or to the right of the photo button in direct messages, in the mobile Twitter app. It’s also available on the web at twitter.com. As I said, you can search for GIFs by entering various keywords in the search box, or you can look through the auto-displayed categories to choose a GIF.

The GIFs are coming! Get ready to search and send GIFs in Tweets and Direct Messages: https://t.co/uk75stt1zN pic.twitter.com/1dDD1B4CW2

— Twitter (@twitter) February 17, 2016

Animated GIFs cannot be included in tweets with multiple images as the service allows only one GIF animation per tweet. Anyone with the link to a GIF shared in a direct message will be able to view the content.

Animated GIFs can be up to 5MB in size. Tags cannot be applied to animated GIFs. For those wondering, Twitter supports looping GIFs. “If your animated GIF doesn’t loop and plays a single time, it will display as a static image,” cautions the company.

Searching for a GIF may not be available if your device is experiencing poor cellular connectivity. “If you find you cannot search for a GIF through the media library, you can still upload a GIF that is saved to your phone’s photo library,” according to Twitter.

This is a staggered release so not all users will see this option at once. For its part, Twitter says that GIF search will roll out “over the coming weeks to everyone around the world” on iOS, Android and on twitter.com.