GIFs are a fun way to communicate an emotion, joke, or sentiment in a way that’s eye catching, compact, and conveys more than a simple emoticon can. We take a look at the best options out there for your smartphone. Master your iPhone in one minute a day: Sign up here to get our FREE Tip of the Day delivered right to your inbox.Keen to use plenty of GIFs in your text conversations, social media interactions, or even your work? If you can’t find the the perfect one somewhere like Giphy, it’s pretty easy to make your own, providing you know how. Show off your master GIF-making skills by saving any newly made GIFs to your Photos app or by posting them to social media. Take note: Those who are anti-selfie can still share the fun by shooting a quick scene and characterizing it with a waving gorilla paw or raining money. The only downside to GIPHY CAM is that you can only use one special effect at a time. With so many funky themes and add-ons to pick from, it’s tempting to apply them all for double the fun. To create your first GIF using either the selfie cam or the regular camera, press down on the record button until your five seconds are up. The best part is that the app is incredibly easy to use. Enter the most creative GIF-making app, complete with over 40 psychedelic filters, special effects, and playful photobooth-inspired overlays that will lend some serious flair to any moving image. In an age of Snapchat filters that become crazier by the second, GIPHY CAM fits right in. Other notable features include the option to tag friends and add specific locations to all of your Daycap creations. If you happen to take a few too many snapshots for your slideshow, you can go back and delete them later. By the time you’re done compiling a series of photos that visually communicate your story, Daycap adds a cool timestamp to each photo to help tell the story with a timeline of events. Use the app’s built-in camera to randomly capture photos throughout the day or upload shots from your Photos app. In a nutshell, Daycap presents all of your daily snapshots in a GIF that you can share on social media or send via a text message. Have an upcoming road trip in the works? Or perhaps you want to share a rundown of your day with friends on Facebook or Instagram? Tracking these moments just got a whole lot easier with Daycap, a very clever slideshow-making app that you’ll wonder how you lived without all these years. You can then save the final product to your Photos app, share it on social media, or upload it directly to VSCO Grid (a social network by VSCO that serves as a platform for well-curated photos). Next, personalize your GIF with the built-in selection of VSCO-inspired filters that range from black and white to vintage film.
You can create a video that’s up to 2.5 seconds in length by holding down the capture button located on the app’s main screen (you'll know that it's filming when a rainbow border appears around your screen). What sets the app apart, however, is its emphasis on aesthetics. Like Boomerang, DSCO is a user-friendly GIF-creation app. Those who swear by VSCO (free)-the industry standard for mobile editing-will flock to DSCO. For best results (as with most apps), practice makes perfect. While there aren’t a lot of bells and whistles, this app succeeds due to its ease of use.
To use the app, simply tap on the screen, and voilà! Within seconds, Boomerang captures a lightning round of 10 shots that form a mini video. Use the front-facing camera to capture an animated selfie or, better yet, document a busy street scene or someone doing cartwheels. Share fun tidbits from your day with Boomerang, an intuitive app that essentially transforms a one-second video (which is then looped back and replayed for a total of four seconds) into a GIF that you can then upload and edit within Instagram. Related: How to Turn Live Photos into GIFs Boomerang from Instagram (Free)