How do i put a gif on instagram
How to Post a GIF on Instagram from Any Device
How to post a GIF on Instagram
How to turn a video into a GIF for Instagram
How to post a GIF on an Instagram Story
How to send a GIF on Instagram DM
Best Instagram GIF apps
GIFs are a fun way to connect with your audience by referencing viral trends or nostalgic moments. And if you don’t how to post a GIF on Instagram, you’re missing out.
They’re useful for memes, but you can also share custom GIFs that add to your brand’s voice. Hootsuite’s mascot, Owly, is a particular fan of GIFs.
Keep reading to find out how to post a GIF on Instagram, including how to slide them into your DMs.
Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps a fitness influencer used to grow from 0 to 600,000+ followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.
Technically, Instagram doesn’t support GIF files for an Instagram post. There are two workarounds to this problem:
Option #1: Use a GIF from GIPHY
GIPHY is a one-stop shop for all of your GIF needs. It also has a simple tool to turn any GIF into a 15-second .mp4 file. Perfect for posting directly on your Instagram feed.
Option #2: Upload a GIF as a video
You’ll need to convert your GIF to a video to post it on your Instagram feed. You can use a free tool like Adobe Express to convert a GIF into a .mp4 file. And then you can upload the video to your feed. Ta-da!
Now let’s talk about the step-by-step process of posting a GIF on Instagram from your phone or your computer.
Android/iOSTo post directly from GIPHY:
1. Download the GIPHY app.
2. Find a GIF you want to post.
3. Click the paper airplane icon on the bottom right side of the GIF.
4. Choose the Instagram icon.
5. Select where you want to post it on Instagram. You have 4 options: Chats, Feed, Reels, or Stories. Tap on Feed.
6. This opens up your Instagram app. Then you can add text, stickers, or other effects to customize the GIF.
7. Click on Next to add a caption, edit the cover, tag people, or add a location.
8. Then choose Share. Your GIF uploads as a reel to your profile.
To upload your own GIF:
1. To convert a GIF into a video, use a free tool like Adobe Express. You’ll need to sign up for an account first.
2. Click on Upload your GIF.
3. Upload your GIF and then select Download.
4. That’s it! Now you can upload the video directly to your Instagram feed.
DesktopTo post a GIF from GIPHY:
1. Open the GIPHY website and ensure you’re logged in. (You need an account to do this on desktop).
2. Find a GIF you want to post.
3. Click the Share icon on the right side of the GIF.
4. Choose the Instagram icon.
5. A pop-up appears asking for your email address. Then GIPHY will email you a .mp4 file of the GIF.
6. Check your email! GIPHY has emailed you the .mp4 file.
7. Download the .mp4 file and then upload it as your Instagram post.
To upload your own GIF:
1. To convert a GIF into a video, use a free tool like Adobe Express. You’ll need to sign up for an account first.
2. Click on Upload your GIF.
3. Upload your GIF and then select Download.
4. That’s it! Now you can upload directly to your Instagram feed.
How to turn a video into a GIF for InstagramYou can’t create GIFs directly on Instagram. You’ll need to use a different app or your phone’s camera roll to turn a video into a GIF. You can find our detailed guide on how to make a GIF for more info.
You could use Adobe Express mentioned above to turn a video into a GIF, but you might want to consider GIPHY for easy sharing. People using GIPHY can find your GIFs and use them in their projects or messages. Ultimately, this helps build brand awareness.
Below we’ll discuss how to turn a video into a GIF using GIPHY, but other apps can also create GIFs using video. (More on that later).
Or if you would rather watch a video on how to turn a video into a GIF, watch this:
1. Open the GIPHY app or website and ensure you’re logged in. You need an account to create GIFs, so sign-up to get started.
2. Click Create in the top right corner.
(On mobile, select “Uploads” and choose “Create”).
3. From here, you can upload a video or add a video URL link. The video must be under 100 MB and shorter than 15 seconds. Keep in mind that the URL option is only available on desktop.
4. Next, you can use the sliders to trim the video.
5. Click Continue to Upload. You can edit your GIF further by adding a caption, filters, or stickers.
Now you’re ready to share your GIF with the world. Easy as that!
How to post a GIF on an Instagram StoryThere are three ways to post a GIF on an Instagram Story.
Option #1: Upload a GIF
1. Open Instagram Stories.
2. Add a GIF to your Stories by searching for it in your phone gallery and clicking it.
3. This inserts the GIF into your Instagram Story, and you can add text, stickers, and other effects before you publish.
Option #2: Use the GIF feature within Instagram
1.
Upload or take a photo and add it to your Instagram story.
2. Click on the sticker icon in the upper right menu.
3. Choose the “GIF” feature.
4. The menu will show you trending GIFs or you can search for a GIF. Click on it to insert it into your Story.
5. If you want, add text, images, doodles, or effects.
6. Then you can click Next to publish!
Option #3: Post directly from GIPHY
1. Open the GIPHY app.
2. Select a GIF you want to post.
3. Tap the paper airplane icon to share.
4. Select Stories to post on Instagram Stories.
6. This opens up your Instagram app. Then you can add text, stickers, or other effects to customize the GIF.
7. Click on Next to share your GIF on Instagram Stories.
How to send a GIF on Instagram DMYou can also send GIFs to your besties through direct messages on Instagram. Here’s how to do it:
1.
Open the chat with the person or group you want to message.
2. Tap the sticker icon next to Message…
3. Choose the GIF icon in the bottom right corner.
4. You can scroll through to find trending GIFs or use the search function to find one.
5. Click on the GIF to automatically send it to the chat.
Best Instagram GIF appsCustom GIFs are a great way to boost your brand awareness and share engaging content to connect with your audience. But you can’t create GIFs using Instagram. It’s necessary to use another app to create GIFs to post on Instagram.
Here are the most popular apps to create GIFs for Instagram:
GIPHY
GIPHY has the largest library of GIFs. It’s perfect to find the precise GIF to convey your message or to create your own custom GIFs. It’s also the only GIF maker on this list you can use on your computer.
Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps a fitness influencer used to grow from 0 to 600,000+ followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.
Get the free guide right now!
Cost: Free
Available on: GIPHY has an app for Android and iOS. It’s also available on desktop, but there is no feature for direct posting to Instagram.
Best for: Uploading GIFs to a library for other people to use.
GIF Maker, GIF Editor
GIF Maker, GIF Editor has over 10 million downloads. It has a ton of features including adjusting the speed, cropping the GIF, and adding or deleting certain frames in the animation.
Cost: Free, but if you want an ad-free experience you can upgrade for $2.99.
Available on: Android
Best for: People needing a GIF editor with all the features.
ImgPlay
ImgPlay is a GIF maker using photos, live photos, burst photos, or videos. You can also trim your GIF, add filters, and merge multiple videos into one.
Cost: Free, but you’ll need to pay for premium features.
Available on: ImgPlay has an app for Android and iOS.
Best for: People wanting to make professional-level GIFs.
GIF Maker by Momento
Momento can take your photos, live photos, and videos and turn them into GIFs. You can add a creative flair by adding stickers, text, and effects.
Cost: Free, but you’ll need to pay for premium features.
Available on: iOS
Best for: Quickly create fun GIFs to share on social media.
Posting GIFs on Instagram is a winning strategy to make your content more engaging and show off your brand’s voice.
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How to upload GIF to Instagram easily
If you’re using Slack at work, you already know how much everybody loves GIFs — short animated images that are most frequently used for reactions to something else being posted. Indeed, there seems to be a perfect GIF for everything.
Moreover, using GIFs is a fun and easy way to break up your content or even explain how to do something. If we say that a picture is worth a thousand words, then GIFs should be really invaluable.
GIF (graphical interchange format) was developed back in 1987 and is just another image format, like PNG or JPG, but that does support animation. Unlike videos, GIFs are also lightweight and perfect for sharing in messengers or on social media.
Instagram, in particular, would be a great place to share GIFs, since they are quickly digestible and tend to attract attention right away. Unfortunately, you can’t just upload GIFs on Instagram from your camera roll like you’d do on Facebook or Twitter.
So can you post GIFs on Instagram? Yes and no. While Instagram GIF posting isn’t directly supported, there are a few workarounds you can use, just like everywhere else — mostly by using third-party apps or turning your GIFs into short videos.
Let’s see how to post a GIF on Instagram exactly and which apps you should use to do it.
Finding the perfect GIF might seem difficult at first, but not when you use GIPHY. GIPHY is the largest collection of GIFs in the world, with a powerful engine to search for the exact GIF you need. Another benefit of GIPHY is its absolute integration with all the most popular apps in the world, including Instagram. In fact, sharing through GIPHY is the easiest way to upload GIFs on Instagram.
Here’s how to do it on Mac
- Visit giphy.com
- Search for the GIF you like and open it
- Pick Share from the menu
- Select Instagram
- Include your email and send yourself the results MP4 of your GIF
- Download the MP4 on your Mac
- Post the MP4 of the GIF to Instagram
You might be wondering what’s the best way to quickly upload GIFs on Instagram from your Mac? Use Grids!
Grids is one of the quickest and most straightforward ways to upload photos, videos, and even stories to Instagram using your Mac.
This app is super fast and superior to the web version of Instagram you can access on Mac. Just upload your GIF in the best quality, edit on the spot, add all the necessary captions, and you’re done!
You can also use GIPHY for Instagram GIFs on your phone:
- Download the GIPHY app
- Find the GIF you like
- Press the paper-plane icon next to the GIF to share it
- Select Instagram
- Choose Feed
Your GIF will be uploaded automatically.
How to post your own GIF to Instagram
Sometimes, what you’re looking for in a GIF is not necessarily a funny reaction to something, but rather a useful piece of content, such as a walkthrough, a guide, a summary, etc. In this case, you might want to create your own GIF and then post it to Instagram.
The best and the fastest way to create GIFs on Mac is by using Gifox.
Gifox is a lightweight app that lives in your menu bar and extends the functionality of Mac’s native screenshot-taking tool by adding GIFs to it.
By default, you can either define a GIF-taking area or use an app window. Record your video as usual, and Gifox will automatically translate it into a GIF. Doing so with keyboard shortcuts takes mere seconds — Gifox is really good at adapting to your workflow.
Once your GIF is ready, you can move on to the second step, which is converting your GIF into a short MP4 video. To do that, you need a fast and reliable media converter, such as Permute.
Permute is an essential app for your Mac, allowing you to convert any media format into any other, whether it’s images, audio, video, photos, etc. What’s more, the app is able to predict the likeliest conversions and preset them accordingly. It’s really that simple.
To convert GIF into MP4 with Permute:
- Launch Permute
- Click the plus (+) icon at the bottom and find your GIF
- Use the dropdown menu at the top to select MP4 format
- Hit the play icon to run the conversion
How to add GIFs on Instagram Stories
Now you know how to post Instagram GIFs to your feed.
But is it possible to do the same Stories? Yes it is, and there are some other options here as well.
You can, for example, use Instagram’s native Boomerang feature to create GIF-like short animations for your Stories. Boomerangs are really 10 photos stitched together that are sped up and played back and forth.
Here’s how to do that:
- Tap on the camera icon to start a new Story
- Press the boomerang icon (looks like a symbol of infinity)
- Film your Boomerang. Make sure there’s some action going on!
- Hit Your Stories to post your Boomerang
Alternatively, you can use GIPHY again to post premade GIFs to Stories, similar to the process described above:
- Visit giphy.com
- Find the GIF you like
- Click Share ➙ Instagram
- Email yourself the MP4 version of the GIF
- Use Grids to post your GIF to Stories
If you want to use a GIPHY app on your phone instead, it’s just as simple as sharing a GIF to your feed:
- Launch GIPHY
- Look for the GIF you like
- Tap the share icon
- Pick Instagram
- In the Instagram app, select Stories
Finally, there’s one more option of how to post a GIF on Instagram Stories, and that’s through animated stickers that are also sourced from GIPHY.
To do that:
- Start creating an Instagram Story as usual
- Press the sticker icon
- Browse or search for a GIF you like
- Choose a GIF you’d like to use
- Change its size if needed
- Tap Your Stories to post
How to upload GIFs to your Instagram DMs
If you can share Instagram GIFs with the world, why can’t you send one privately in your DMs? Well, in fact, you can — by using the same sticker functionality from above:
- Open your Instagram DMs
- Find a conversation to send a GIF to
- Press the plus (+) icon
- Tap on the sticker icon
- Find the perfect sticker through GIPHY
- Tap on the sticker to send
What’s great is that you can also do it on Mac, if you have IM+.
IM+ is just one of those apps that saves us hours a day by aggregating all the conversations and DMs from all social networks in one place. You can use Instagram, Slack, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, and more in a single app window.
To keep yourself from being distracted, just set work and personal limits, so you don’t get the notifications you don’t expect. Now you can stay connected and send over messages and share files of any format with ease.
As you can see, you don’t have to be boring on Instagram — GIFs make every conversation, post, and Story so much more fun. And sharing them doesn’t take any extra time if you post with Grids, create them with Gifox, convert formats with Permute, and DM them with IM+.
Best of all, Grids, Gifox, Permute, and IM+ are available to you absolutely free for seven days through the trial of Setapp, a platform with more than 220 top-of-the-line Mac apps that make your daily workflow so much more productive. Try every Setapp app today at no cost and find your new daily favorites!
how to add — LiveDune Blog
Beautiful gifs on Instagram are an opportunity to add emotions to stories, make the content more vivid and varied. For example, for commercial accounts, a GIF is a good way to emphasize and stand out from other users.
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How to add gifs to Instagram stories
There are two ways to add gifs to Instagram stories: the first is as a separate element, the second is as a separate story. Let's analyze each of the options.
Gif for Instagram stories as an additional element
This is the old and familiar way to insert a gif into Instagram stories:
Make a new story.
At the top of the screen, click on the smiley sticker, then "GIF". nine0003
Choose any GIF you like and place it in the desired part of stories.
The most popular GIFs are located in the Trending section. You can also search for gifs by keywords in both English and Russian. But the issue on Instagram is sometimes different, therefore we recommend that you enter the names of gifs alternately in two languages.
For example: first enter “love” into the search, and then “love”, so the probability of finding a suitable GIF increases.
GIFs can be enlarged or reduced in size, as well as flipped by clicking on the animation. If you don't like the gif, you can delete it. To do this, drag it down the screen and move it to the urn icon that appears. Instagram allows you to add any number of gifs to one story. Everything is limited only by common sense and aesthetic vision of the author of stories. nine0003
Gif on Instagram as a standalone stories
Recently, Instagram has added another option to add GIFs as standalone stories. This option is relevant when you want to place only a gif or use it as a background for text.
Go to the stories section and select Create.
Next, find "GIF" and enter the desired gif into the search.
Unfortunately, it cannot be reduced, it completely fills the stories screen. But this version of the gif can be used for a beautiful animated background.
To do this, select a neutral background (ideally, so that no transitions are visible, or find a vertical GIF). Add text or other GIFs in the standard way. nine0004
How to add a gif that is not on Instagram
You can place a gif that is not in the standard list, for example, your own brand logo, using the GIPHY service. To do this, install the application on your smartphone.
Select the appropriate gif in the "Explore" section or search for the one you need. Click on the gif you like, then on the paper airplane icon.
If you want to post the gif directly to your stories or Instagram feed, click on the paper airplane, then on the Instagram icon. If as an additional element in stories, then click on the paper airplane and save it through the icon in the upper right corner. nine0004
Next, open Instagram and create a new story. Go to your camera roll and copy the gif. Go back to stories and click "Add sticker".
In this option, we recommend looking for gifs with a transparent background, so it will look more aesthetically pleasing and will not stand out from the general content. Also in GIPHY you can create and upload your own GIF, especially for commercial accounts:
Made with GIPHY
Animated stories always attract attention, but the audience reacts to them differently, it all depends on the niche of the account and subscribers. Therefore, always study the statistics of stories in order to predict user behavior and thereby increase coverage.
Ideas for using gifs in stories
GIFs must be used appropriately. Place it so that it complements the content, and does not take all the attention to itself. Therefore, we have made a small selection of ideas and beautiful GIFs on Instagram that will tell you how you can skillfully use them in your stories. nine0004
To announce a post, repost it in stories and add a GIF "New post", "Tap/Click here", "Fresh content" or simply place a clicking hand.
Thus, you will suggest the necessary action to the subscriber and motivate them to interact with the content. You can simply post some ready-made entries in the form of "Good morning" or, for example, "Friday". So you just convey the mood and communicate with the audience at the same time.
GIFs on Instagram can also bring photos to life by adding sparkle, snow or rain. Or supplement a photo with food or coffee with smoke / steam. This is a small element, but it adds so much charm to the photo, makes it lively and sets the mood. nine0003
Gifs on topics will add zest to an ordinary photo. For example, with the help of a GIF, you can create an effect of surprise by adding a GIF in the form of a shark to a regular photo from the sea or by placing a dinosaur in the jungle.
Conclusion
To make your stories unusual, choose interesting and beautiful GIFs on Instagram. At the same time, do not forget to observe a sense of proportion - do not add 10 gifs per story and do not use animation in each story.
nine0037 Do not forget about readability - animation should emphasize, focus attention, and not interfere with the study of content. For example, if you highlight a word in the text by adding a sparkle gif to it, that's good. If you highlight the entire text with glitter, it becomes unreadable, and the user is most likely to quickly flip through such stories.
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Adding your GIF to Instagram stories: how to bypass restrictions
Why do you need to be able to add GIFs? On Instagram*, their choice is limited - once, this function is periodically disabled for various reasons - two, through SMMplanner it is not yet possible to separately link gifs to Stories - three.
nine0004
If you read this article carefully, you will no longer be constrained by these restrictions. But - read, and not just add to bookmarks.
Are gifs necessary?
GIFs are cool. Animation with Giphy is well suited for entertainment content, while homemade GIFs can be used for more serious purposes - it all depends on the author's imagination. For example, SMMplanner can use GIFs in Stories to make short and useful instructions on how to use the service. nine0004
For more information on how to schedule Stories in the delayed posting service, see the article “Instructions: how to post a Story on Instagram* from a computer”.
Can't add your own GIFs?
Only Giphy animations are available inside Instagram*. When you try to add your own to the Story, it will be added not as an animated image, but as a static picture. But this restriction can be bypassed - if:
- transcode the gif to MP4 using a special service; nine0188
- upload your animation with Giphy;
- use a graphics program (for example, Photoshop).
The first item on the list is simple: go to CloudConvert, upload the pre-downloaded GIF and convert it to an MP4 video file. Save it on your computer, put it in History. Disadvantage of the method: you cannot insert animation on your photos or videos. But you can post a poll, add text or something else.
If you want to zoom out or move the added video, hold it down with two fingers. nine0004
Adding with Giphy
In the past, Instagram users* could add a GIF to their stories using Giphy directly from the service. Now, when you try to do this, you will see the following message:
Instagram * does not support the desire of users to insert a gif into StoriesHow will the service help now?
Option 1. Helps you convert a gif animation into a video file.
After registering on the site, click the button at the top of the "Download" page and select the file on your computerSet privacy, tags and upload to Giphy Click on the right menu "Media Files" and save the MP4 file to your computerIf you want to change something in your animation or add stickers, click the "Create" button, not "Upload".
It remains only to add the created GIF to the History. Cons, respectively, here are the same as with any download of video files.
If you like to use the application on your phone instead of browser versions, then you will be disappointed - you cannot save videos to MP4 in the Giphy application. nine0004
But there is option 2. If you plan to often create your gifs and stickers, you are a brand representative or you just need them to increase your reach, register on Giphy as an artist...
...or as a brand representativeYou need to register thoughtfully, because after filling in all the required fields, your artist account will be verified. And only if it passes, then the gifs and stickers you created and uploaded can be found on Instagram* by tags. nine0004 Please note that you are required to indicate the webpage that best represents your talent
Read more about verification on the service in the article "How to make your own GIF for Instagram Stories*" on the SMMplanner blog.
Create your own
To make a story with a gif, you don't have to be a god of Photoshop, the main thing is to carefully read the article and repeat the process step by step.
We'll show everything on Adobe Photoshop, but maybe it's easier to do it in other programs. If you know the program more conveniently (or better for some reason), throw the name in the comments - this information will be useful not only to us, but also to our readers. nine0004
Step 1: Prepare the materials
Find the materials from which you will collect the GIF to post in the story: photo, video, text and sound.
Find GIF and convert to MP4 using CloudConvert service.
Where to look for a GIF is up to you. One of the most common resources is Giphy. You can search for something more original, for example, in VKontakte groups, something simple in Yandex. Pictures.
Find the GIF you want, save the image to your computer, then run it through a gif to MP4 converter serviceYou can download from Giphy, as we found out above, immediately in the desired format.
You can take your own video with sound. Do not forget to reduce its size: crop and save in a different quality, Photoshop does not like large video files.
Step 2: Creative in Photoshop
Open Photoshop, create a new file and specify the dimensions: 1080x1920, portrait orientation. You can put anything on it, you can put nothing on it. You can create multiple layers. In this case, as you add GIFs to Stories, they will be divided into several slides. nine0004 My picture (file). You can take any picture or photo
Open the animation file. The Timeline panel should appear at the bottom.
Move the mouse over the animation layer, hold down the left button and drag the layer into the document you created. Now the document also has a Timeline.
Another way: after opening the animation, just go to the window of the first document.
..
If dragged unevenly, convert the layer to smart object: hover over the layer, right-click, find the "Convert to Smart Object" function and click. Now you can change the size of the animation itself by transforming by holding Ctrl + T, or follow the path: "Edit" → "Free Transform". nine0004 How to add a GIF on Instagram* to stories
In our screenshot, the stripes differ in size - if you do not want the animation to be longer or shorter than the background, you need to set them to the same duration.
Follow the same instructions to add other objects, layers, sound.
Video remains to be saved. In the "Timeline" tab, find the menu icon (several horizontal sticks), click on it and select "Export Video".
Can be saved via the main menu: File ➝ Export ➝ Video Export Do not be afraid if you have not found an export.
