GIFs are sort of like a universal language. As the old saying goes, pictures are worth a thousand words. GIFs are like super-powered versions of pictures that can say so much more than a thousand words and now Google image searches for GIFs are getting a share button, making it even easier to say whatever it is you were trying to say by sending that GIF to someone.
Powered by Google’s purchase of Tenor, the new GIF image search engine lets users more easily and quickly search for the perfect GIF to send and the share buttons, which are extremely easy to spot ensuring there’s little chance you’ll miss it, are integrated with just about any app where you’d want to share the image. Which is really any app that supports adding a GIF into a conversation.
There are already endless ways to share GIFs on smartphones. You can use the GIPHY app, or even the gyfcat app. You can even just search for a GIF right from Gboard if you’re already typing messages to someone. Sometimes though you can’t very easily find the GIF you’re looking for and this is where Google image search came in handy.
The problem with it is that when you found a GIF you felt was perfect, you’d usually have to hit the link connected to it grab the GIF image, download it, then share it where you wanted. This took extra time and could be more than a little annoying if the website where the GIF was hosted had issues loading, and now thanks to the GIF share button on image searches users can bypass all of that and send GIFs a lot faster.
As of now Google is only making this available on Android and iOS through the Google app or no Chrome for Android from Google.com, but it will be expanding the share button for GIFs to other platforms, like desktop versions of Google, in the future. Google does not however list when that time may be so for now you’ll have to use your smartphone to access the new feature.
Google also plans to expand this to more browsers as well so it won’t just be Chrome, eventually you’ll be able to see this feature in Google image search from other popular browsers, though Google doesn’t mention any specifically. Chances are though that this will include Firefox and perhaps Edge.
This feature is already live on mobile devices and it should be showing up for everyone. To see the new GIF share button and share a GIF, simply open up the Google app or open up the Chrome browser and go to Google, search for something, then tap on the images tab, and then finally tap on the GIF icon. This will bring up all the GIFs associated with whatever your search term was and the share button will be below each GIF in the search results. Once you hit the share button, all the apps where you’ll be able to share it will pop up in the panel that rises from the bottom of the screen. It’s that easy.