Does the term Graphics Interchange Format ring any bells? It might, it might not. It’s a bitmap image format introduced by CompuServe in 1987, providing a colour image format for their file downloading areas, in order to replace their earlier, black and white only, run-length encoding (RLE) format. In other words, it’s what you and I most commonly refer to as a GIF.
We love GIFs for their simplicity and power of expression. In the smallest amount of data, they capture that one moment that describes our state of mind, our mood or our words, to perfection. It’s probably why we here at tapptitude, also ventured in the creation of an app that would open up the world of GIFs for us. It’s called Riffsy and it’s your go-to GIF marketplace – a GIF keyboard app, providing you with millions of GIFs and videos in the quickest way. Riffsy is totally free and available for your iOS mobile device right here.
For this week’s App of the Week piece, we set our eyes on Giphy Cam. You guessed it – it’s all about GIFs with this one. But what this mobile app brings new to the table is the fact that it helps you create your own GIFs. How cool is that?! Download it now on your iPhone for free and let the fun begin.
The GIF creator mobile app
The Giphy Cam iPhone app is straight-forward a GIF creator. It opens up by opening your camera in the upper half of the screen, in order for you to start recording your works of art, by using the big red button in the middle of the screen. You have the option of using the front camera (top-left icon on the screen) or to use the photoflash (top-right icon on the screen).
The other half of the screen consists of all sorts of filters and stickers to up your GIF game. They have everything, from a collection of stickers starring Daniel Radcliffe called Swiss Army Man for some reason, to The Simpsons, to rainbow stickers, to sleepy eyes and vampire’s teeth, to John Travolta. Did we miss anything? For sure, ‘cause there’s a bunch of funny stuff in there you’re just gonna have to find out for yourself. And when we say “a bunch of funny stuff” we mean it: there’s 40 different overlays and effects to choose from.
How this works is really simple. Select any filter or sticker you want to use and then record your GIF. you can do
this by either tapping on the recording button – giving you a 5 frame burst mode GIF, or by pressing and holding the
recording button for a loop video. And voila! If you feel like adding one more sticker to your GIF, feel free to do
so. When you’re done and happy with the outcome, hit the blue “Next” button in the middle of the screen, where the
recording button used to be. Now you can text your buddies your marvellous GIF, you can share it on social media
(Instagram, Twitter, Facebook Messenger) or you can just save it for later in your camera roll. Or you can just as
well reset and start all over again.
What’s hot?
UX is nice and clean
We love how easy the Giphy Cam mobile app is to use. All you have to do is to record, add your favourite special effects to the recording and you’re all set – ready to share your masterpiece with the world. The creators did a great job integrating as much as 40 different effects for the GIFs – funny overlays, artsy filters. You just have to get creative, the tools are all there.
Add text to your GIFs
Make your GIFs stand out even more by adding text. Give them that little extra, help everyone better grasp what you’re trying to communicate.
A mobile app big on the community
Creating a community around a mobile app, or any other kind of product for that matter is no easy task. But oh boy, is it valuable. You know you’ve created something relevant for your customer base when people invest more of their time not only in using your product, but also actively (and creatively) participating in community talks.
What’s not?
There’s a limit to your love for effects
Unfortunately, you can’t really turn your GIFs into a special effects jungle, as much as some of us would like to
(myself included). You’ll have to settle on a maximum of two special effects per GIF. Record your GIF using one
special effect you like, be it a photo filter or an overlay of some sort. After this first version is done, you can
add one more special effect before moving on to sharing or just saving your GIF in your phone’s camera roll.
Bottom line
All in all, the Giphy Cam mobile app makes good on its promise. You can easily create and share your GIFs – you no longer have to settle with what’s already out there, you can now create your very own! We’d be happy to see Giphy Cam developed for Android users so they can join in on the fun as well.
And one more thing: a BIG THANK YOU to everyone keeping up with the Tapptitude blog 🙂
(Note: We are not affiliated or endorsed by this app. We just really love mobile apps and we want to share them with the world and give people great mobile experiences)
Get the Giphy Cam iOS mobile app right here.
Keep up with the Giphy Cam mobile app:
Sinziana Chitea
Content Marketer
Content Marketing Specialist, teasing everyone into taking cute pictures for Instagram. Discovering the tech world bit by bit, and writing it all down on the agency's blog. Enthusiastic about everything visual. And sweets and dogs.
