But with image galleries, users can share up to 20 photos and GIFs at once, and add captions and URLs to each image. Galleries also support “spoiler” and “not safe for work” tags.

Reddit

Perhaps learning from the messy rollout of group chat rooms, the company notes that image galleries are opt-in, with moderators needing to approve the feature before it’s activated in a given subreddit. But the company says a number of communities, like those that share recipes and other tutorials, have already shown interest in galleries.  

The feature is available now across Reddit but, since it requires moderators to enable it, the feature may take a while to show up on individual subreddits. 

Facebook has bought the GIF-sharing service Giphy, which will now be a part of the Instagram team. It plans to integrate Giphy’s library more deeply into Instagram (where GIFs are prevalent in Stories) and other Facebook services. Although Facebook didn’t reveal how much it paid for Giphy, Axios reports that the price was $400 million.

Developing…

For a couple of years, Instagram users have been able to pull GIFs from Giphy to use as animated stickers in Stories. When your friend posts something that you just have to respond to and words or a static image just won’t cut it, you might want to reply with a GIF of your own. And guess what? You can do just that following the app’s latest update.

Give the gift of GIFs. You can now upload your iOS Live Photos as GIFs anywhere you upload photos on Twitter. pic.twitter.com/D8TIfsBwyd

— Twitter (@Twitter) December 11, 2019

While it’s nice to have another way to use Live Photos, Twitter’s a touch behind the curve here. Apple introduced Live Photos on iPhone 6s in 2015. That same year, Tumblr and Facebook started allowing people to share them on their platforms, while Google’s iOS app has been able to convert them into GIFs since 2016. In 2017, Apple offered a way to embed Live Photos on any website.

Twitter’s useful Live Photos feature arrives alongside other changes to how it handles images. It’ll also preserve JPEG encoding on photos of up to 16 megapixels you upload via the web, instead of transcoding them (which impacts image quality).

The company has previous in pushing the envelope in this area, partnering with Snapchat and then launching its own video platform. Now, as Variety reports, Giphy Video will feature content with audio — although initially only a number of pre-selected media partners will be involved. Content will come from the likes of Universal Pictures, Geffen Records and BBC America, designed to pique interest in and get people talking about upcoming movies and TV shows. Clips will be capped at 30 seconds, although Giphy is recommending a limit of 15 seconds because… attention spans.

At this juncture, the move is certainly revenue-driven, but the success of audio GIFs will undoubtedly lie in user-generated content — Imgur did something in this vein last year. As Giphy CEO Alex Chung tells Variety, “It took years for GIFs to be popular.” And when they did eventually hit the mainstream, it was meme culture and the Extremely Online types that got them there — not corporations. But, Chung says, the company has no plans yet to open up the platform to the general population. Still, if the format exists, it won’t be long before someone gets it into the hands of regular users — whether or not that’s Giphy remains to be seen.

The company said it was testing the feature in some international markets, including France. It’s not certain when Cameo will reach the masses, but Snap said to expect a worldwide release “soon.”

This could help Snapchat in multiple ways. It’s an alternative to Bitmoji for those who think avatars are too cutesy. It also gives Snapchat a way to stand out among social networks and messaging services at the same time, and might give it a source of revenue if it charges for third-party Cameo clips. At least, up until Facebook copies the feature.