Facebook rolls out GIF comments to everybody
Facebook has had strange relationship with GIFs over the years. For a long time, they weren't supported at all, but as the social network grew, they came to Messenger and then to comments -- as long as they were shared via a service like Giphy or Imgur. Earlier this year, Facebook made things more official by launching a dedicated GIF button, but again it was hamstrung by the fact it only extended to a small subset of users.
To celebrate 30 years of the Graphics Interchange Format, the company has lifted that restriction, making GIFs available to all. Now, when you visit Facebook.com or open the official Facebook apps, you will notice a small GIF icon that sits alongside an emoji inside the comment box. This opens up a small box that contains a search function and a collection of trending GIFs. Bear in mind that Giphy and Tenor are powering things underneath the hood, so there's an extensive selection of reactions to choose from.
