YouTube Rolls Out Automatic GIF Maker for Videos

It looks like YouTube is about to make one of its most requested features a reality. Originally spotted by Twitter user Andy Baio, the video sharing site seems to be quietly experimenting with an in-house, automatic GIF maker for its content. PBS’ Idea Channel and the immensely popular Vlogbrothers are currently two channels whose videos can be turned into GIFs.

Figure 1 (Sources: Twitter/@waxpancake)

As seen in Figure 1 above, particular videos now have an extra option in their Share button in the form of a small timeline. This lets users determine—through visual cues and a timecode— their GIF’s start and end points. The resulting GIFs have a maximum length of 5 seconds.

While the finished product is hosted by YouTube, the GIF may also be saved if users want to post it somewhere else. The GIF maker allows for captions to be placed at the top and bottom of the image, replicating the look of humorous memes found all over the Internet.

Figure 2 (Source:Imgur)

While YouTube’s GIF creator is an exciting feature that is ripe for experimentation, there are also some questions that need to be asked. It is not certain which YouTube channels currently have access to the GIF maker, nor is it clear who would be able to use the GIF creator during its beta phase.

Some of YouTube’s most prominent videos, like “Gangnam Style,” do not have the feature, as well as certain channels with more than one million subscribers—such as Nerdist and Geek and Sundry. Additionally, permission most likely needs to be sought from content creators before YouTube can create GIFs from their videos.

Animated GIFs add quality to social marketing campaigns through the most perfect formula: short, moving videos that users can easily digest, with little to no load times.

How can marketers harness YouTube’s new GIF creator?

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