Something you'll see on Twitter more than anywhere else are reaction GIFs, or GIFs used to respond to other posts and comments without typing words. Twitter has a comprehensive GIF search engine that makes it easy to find the right GIF to send, whether in a direct message or in a tweet replying to someone else on your feed, with simple suggestions like "Okay", "Applause", "High Five", and many more.
As you might expect, you're bound to see a million GIFs on whatever platform you love. Unfortunately, keeping those Twitter GIFs on your computer or phone is harder than it should be. Right-clicking on the desktop site reveals the option to copy the GIF URL, but that's all you get!
Why does Twitter make it so difficult to download and save GIFs for offline use? Is it even possible to save Twitter GIFs to your computer or smartphone? The answer is no, but you can still get your GIF image or download it as an mp4 video and keep it that way. Here's how to download Twitter animated GIF images.
Notes: Remember, these are animated GIFs on Twitter, not actual videos. It will say GIF in the bottom left corner of the still image if you're not already playing.
Twitter GIFs are not real GIFs
Why can't you save Twitter GIFs as an image file on your computer or smartphone like you would a GIF on any other website? The answer may not seem obvious at first glance, but any media that is not a photo on Twitter cannot be downloaded.
Instead, you might notice that GIFs on Twitter use an interface that looks like a video platform, but they lack the playback bar at the bottom of the screen. This is the real reason why you can't save your Twitter GIFs to your computer: these are not GIFs at all but are small video files in which the animated GIF was converted to a proprietary format by Twitter to be more efficient and provide a smoother Twitter experience. On the other hand, you can also convert videos to post on Twitter.
So what does this mean for Twitter GIF download? The answer is to use a few third-party tools. While it's not as simple as right-clicking an image and saving it to your computer, it's still a straightforward process. We'll take a look.
Save a Twitter GIF on Windows
The easiest way to save a Twitter GIF is using a PC. Here's how!
- Grab your Windows PC or laptop and open the tweet containing the GIF you want to copy. You can use the feed, an article's comments page, or directly on the person's reply page.
- Right click on the « GIF », then select âCopy GIF address. »
- Click it "+" to the right of the current tabs at the top to open a new tab.
- Go to « https://twdownload.com/ » without quotes.
- Paste the copied Twitter GIF link into the "video URL box", then click on the âDownload a video! » button.
- You will see a page that presents your GIF as a video. Right click on âDownloadâ Select "Convert to GIF" at the bottom to convert it to a "normal" GIF file.
- The converted GIF will appear in the next window. Right-click on it, then select " Save Image As⊠" You'll notice they specify not to link to the GIF they're displaying directly. That's why you need to right-click on the GIF and save it to your PC, which makes perfect sense, given that you want to keep it around for many uses without bogging down their servers.
- Go to " https://ezgif.com/â and click on the 'Video to GIF' connect.
- Select "Choose File" and load the video you just downloaded/converted to mp4.
- Click the 'Download a video!' button
- You will see a page that presents your GIF as a video. Hit " Convert to GIF to convert it to a "normal" GIF file.
- The converted GIF will appear in the next window. Right-click on it and save the file, as shown in the example below. You'll notice they specify not to link to the GIF they're displaying directly. That's why you need to right-click on the GIF and save it to your PC, which makes perfect sense, considering you want to save it for many uses.
Just remember that reposting the GIF to Twitter will convert the GIF back to Twitter's hybrid format, as with any animated GIF file.
Note: The reason why you can't use EZGIF alone is because their page "Video to GIF (Primary Tab) -> Video to GIF (Sub Tab)" errors or does nothing when pasting the twitter link. What worked before doesn't work now. Therefore, you need to switch back to EZGIF to convert your mp4 to GIF.
If for some reason you are unable to get EZGIF to work on your device, don't worry.
There are many sites on the web that can convert Twitter GIFs, including:
Save a Twitter GIF on Mac
Recording Twitter GIF on macOS/Macbooks is very similar to Windows as it uses a browser.
- Launch your browser of choice, open Twitter and find the GIF image you want to download.
- Tap with two fingers on the mouse pad and select âCopy GIF address. »
- Open a new tab by clicking "+" next to the other tabs, then go to "
- Go to «Https://ezgif.com/» and click on the âVideo to GIFâ tongue.
Save a GIF to your phone
Unfortunately, keeping a Twitter GIF on your smartphone is more complicated than downloading it to your computer, largely due to the limitations of mobile operating systems. Still, some people rely on their smartphones for everything, and even Twitter is a better experience when it's in the palm of your hand. For these two methods below, we will be using the Twitter app for Android, combined with other apps to unlock GIF download on your device. We'll take a look.
The easiest solution: use your mobile browser
By far, the most natural solution is to simply copy the GIF, just like the method we described above. It's not difficult to copy the video address into the Twitter app, and EZGIF has a mobile site that makes it easy to save the GIF to your phone.
- Start by finding the GIF you want to save to your device
- Click on the tweet
- Click on the GIF inside the tweet to open it in full screen.
- Hit it share button at the bottom, then select " Copy link. » On Android, you receive a notification when the link is copied to your clipboard.
- Once the link is copied, open your browser and head to EZGIFS.com, which has a mobile site that works as shown above.
- Paste the link in the box provided, but do not click the "Convert" button. The problem with copying the link from the Twitter share menu is obvious: the copied link includes an invitation in front of it to "verify" the tweet.
- Scroll down the URL and erase everything before the 'https://âŠ' part of the link.
- Press the 'Download a video!' button.
- Press and hold the newly created GIF.
- Select 'Save image' to download the content to your device.
The second solution: use dedicated apps for iOS and Android
In addition to the mobile site for EZGIF, there are several off-site apps that you can install on iOS or Android to accomplish the same thing. Apps support the ability to download and save content to your device rather than saving from the web browser, but using a web page is safer. Still, there are tested and trusted apps out there, if you prefer a dedicated app that does the same job. Just be ready for commercials!
For Android, Tweet2GIF is an app that works very similar to EZGIF's Video-to-GIF web app, but works as a dedicated app. One downside of the app is the lower quality conversion, but it works great overall!
You only need to click the convert button once to access your GIF, not convert it and then download it. Second, because it happens in its app interface, GIFs are easier to download and store than they otherwise would be. We found the GIFs to be a little lower quality than we'd otherwise like from the platform, but even so it's a reliable app.
- Click on the GIF in the associated tweet to open it in full screen.
- Press the 'Share'button and bass
- Select " Copy link. "
- Visit Tweet2GIF from the Play Store.
- Install and launch the app.
- Paste the Twitter GIF link you copied in steps 1-3 above.
- Click the 'Download GIF' to save a copy to your smartphone.
For iOS, you'll want to turn to Packed GIF, a reliable GIF search engine on iOS that also converts Twitter GIFs into shareable files.
- Copy the link and paste it into GIFwrapped's "Use Clipboard" feature.
- Save the GIF to your library
- Post or share the GIF to any app using GIFwrapped's built-in sharing feature.
Since GIFwrapped keeps its library in-app, it's easy to keep things locked down and readily available!
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With your GIF newly downloaded and saved from the clutches of Twitter, you can post and share the animated image file anywhere you like! GIFs are a vital part of the online world and help pages load faster than actual media files. Whether you use a dedicated app or download content through EZGIF or another viable online source, it's essential to save GIFs for future use. It's also silly that Twitter keeps its GIFs locked in a video-like state, but luckily they can be converted and saved for the rest of us.
