GIFs, however you say it, already rule the internet. And though making a few-second GIF from the world’s greatest source for GIF-able material – YouTube – isn’t rocket science, it’s a tiny pain in the ass in that you have to use a third-party website or program to do it.
That may be about to change.
In the best news for reaction gif’fers since the invention of GIF keyboards, YouTube is probably going to cut out the middleman and let you make GIFs from videos with a native tool.
The option now appears as one of the “Share” options under a select few YouTube videos, right next to “Embed” and “Email”. Once you select the time frame for your GIF, YouTube will create it and give you an embed code. This functionality isn’t rolled out widely, but it’s currently available for videos on the PBS Idea channel
Whoa, YouTube's rolling out the ability to make animated GIFs from videos! Click Share on any @pbsideachannel video: pic.twitter.com/pq0Tb6Wqzr
— Andy Baio (@waxpancake) December 12, 2014
You should expect this to begin to roll out wide pretty soon, as it’s a no brainer for the site. After that, you should expect your social channels to become even more GIF-saturated – if that’s even possible.