Instagram Stories Is Getting Support For GIFs From Giphy

Instagram may have started out as somewhere we all posted photos of our breakfast from time to time, but it has now grown into a feature-rich image-based social network and it continues to go from strength to strength.

One popular feature is Instagram Stories, and it looks set to receive an additional capability that for once was not “borrowed” from the competition. In fact, that capability is already beginning to show up for some people, with reports that Giphy-based GIFs are now postable within Instagram Stories starting to pop up online.

Facebook and Giphy already have a relationship, with the ability to post GIFs into comments arriving last year. Now it seems that GIFs are coming to Instagram Stories, adding to still and video capabilities for a feature that has become popular among the Instagram elite. According to a report by The Verge, users in Brazil, Indonesia, and the Philippines are reporting that they already have the ability to post Giphy GIFs to Instagram Stories, and users in other markets have been receiving the feature in small numbers elsewhere since November.

Based on that, it would appear both Instagram and Giphy are rolling the feature out slowly, though it is surely only a matter of time before it is switched on for all users. Hopefully, that wait will not be too long!

While posting GIFs to Instagram Stories is interesting in and of itself, what makes it particularly interesting here is that when posted as a Story, the GIFs all have transparent backgrounds. That means that they can be pasted over the top of existing images, creating some brilliant effects for those who have the time, inclination and of course patience to do it.

Expect to start seeing animated, well, everything popping up in an Instagram Story near you soon.

(Source: The Verge, Twitter)

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