Having GIF support in your app has become an essential feature for apps nowadays since the animated images are actually the most popular new form of communication, together with stickers and emoticons. SwiftKey, one of the most popular virtual keyboards available, has brought support for GIFs in their latest update. But you won’t be able to search for GIFs just yet as this is apparently just the initial update for this. Hopefully full GIF support will be available soon.
What you can do once you’ve updated the app is that you will be able to view GIFs for certain categories, which are probably reactions to typical statements, and you’ll be able to send that through your keyboard. But the ability to search for specific GIFs to match what you’re trying to say or to react to your friends’ statement or question or reaction, that’s not yet for this update. The changelog mentions GIFs category only for now so we’re expecting more updates in the future.
Gboard, Google’s own keyboard, already has full GIF support. They have a huge library of searchable GIFs for every occasion, so you don’t need to go to another app to look for the appropriate one to send to your friend at that exact moment. Fleksy is another virtual keyboard that has GIF support, so hopefully SwiftKey will be able to bring all the GIF support its users will want/need.
The update has started rolling out to SwiftKey users so check your Google Play page to see if you already have it.
