Facebook finally testing GIF button for News Feed comments

Facebook has been hesitant with the idea of bringing animated GIFs to the News Feed, arguing this could create too many distractions from what really matters (as if those autoplay videos don’t do the same). Times are changing and Mark Zuckerberg did say a GIF button for comments was in the works; today we are hearing testing could begin next week.

Sources tell TechCrunch this button will allow users to browse and search through GIFs from sources like Giphy and Tenor. It’s expected to work much like how the GIF button now operates in Facebook’s Messenger app. Said tech news source then reached out to the social network for further confirmation, which they did acquire.

Everyone loves a good GIF and we know that people want to be able to use them in comments. So we’re about to start testing the ability to add GIFs to comments and we’ll share more when we can, but for now we repeat that this is just a test.

As expected, this feature will only be available to a select group of users at first. It should spread across the world if proven successful, though.

They may be a bit distracting, but we can’t deny GIFs are fun to use and see. Sometimes nothing can express an emotion like a short, light clip. Are you looking forward to using this animated GIF button?