If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a GIF is worth a million. (Okay, that's a stretch, but 10,000 just doesn't roll off the tongue as easily.) Firing off a dope one, in the middle of a conversation, shows how hip and down you really are. Up until recently, various GIF keyboards have existed to save your precious phone's storage from housing your precious collection. They've been buggy, though, and rather slow. GIPHY, the go-to website for GIFs, is here to fix that.
The just-debuted app, GIPHY Keys, puts the power of GIPHY's desktop service directly into your smartphone's messaging app. After downloading it and adding the keyboard to your list of approved keyboards—like Kimoji, for example—users can access GIPHY's expansive universe of infinitely looping animations and never have to leave the messaging app. All you do is tap the GIF you want and paste it into your message. It also connects to Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat. GIPHY Keys highlights the current trending GIFs, features an array of categories to choose from, and has a search function built right in. Plus, if you're really feeling a particular GIF, you can save it to your favorites for easy access. Unlike other keyboard apps, GIPHY Keys also features a QWERTY keyboard, which removes the awkward tapping between keyboards to get back to the one with actual letters and punctuation.
Fortunately for iOS users, GIPHY Keys is available to download right now. Unfortunately, non-iOS users are out of luck, but not for long.
