Technology Smartphones

How To Make GIFs On Your iPhone With The Apple Shortcuts App

illustration of smartphone with GIF icon Oleksandr Hruts/Getty Images
By Rob Rich/

The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) has been around — and its pronunciation argued about — for decades, and given its prevalence on social media it's not likely to disappear anytime soon. Even inter-company communication platforms like Slack support GIFs.

But what do you do if you can't find a pre-constructed clip to fit your needs, or you want to make your own out of a video you've taken? If you have an iPhone, it's something you can put together and do straight from your smartphone. There's no need to mess around in Photoshop.

Prepping your iPhone for it isn't even that difficult, really. No third-party apps or special websites are needed — you just need the official Shortcuts app and at least one saved video or Live Photo in your iPhone's photo library (and maybe a couple of minutes to get everything set up for the first time). In short, if it moves, and you've saved it to your library, you can turn it into an animated GIF.

Shortcuts to GIF making

sitting on couch with smartphone Urbazon/Getty Images

Setting up your iPhone for GIF creation is pretty simple, and once everything is ready you'll be able to turn any of your videos, clips, or Live Photos.

  1. The Shortcuts app should be on your iPhone by default, but if it isn't you can get it from the App Store for free.
  2. Open the Shortcuts app and select the Gallery tab in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
  3. Tap the Search bar and type in "gif," then select the Make GIF shortcut from the results.
  4. Wait for the detailed pop-up menu to appear and then tap the Add Shortcut button on the bottom of the screen.
  5. Select the Shortcuts tab in the bottom-left corner of the screen to go back to the main menu, then tap the Make GIF shortcut.
  6. Tap on the clip, video, or Live Photo you want to use for your GIF.
  7. Use the slider at the top of the screen to choose the start and end points of your GIF. You can also press the Play button at the bottom of the screen to preview it.
  8. Tap Save to save changes and go back to the main Shortcuts tab. You'll see a preview of your finished GIF inside the Make GIF shortcut window, at which point you can tap Cancel to undo the whole process or Done to save the GIF to your photo library.

To make more GIFs, just open Shortcuts and select Make GIF whenever you want.

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