In one of the biggest possible cases of "it’s better late than never", WhatsApp has finally added GIF search via Giphy and increased the number of media files you’re able to share at once.
That’s right – no need to install the GBoard app, or a separate Gihpy client, or have a whole bunch of GIFs taking up your phone storage. Now, to bombard your friends with GIFs, all you have to do is tap the emoji button at the side of the text box where you’ll be presented with option to switch between the emoji keyboard and a Giphy search keyboard.
Then, just like on Facebook Messenger, you’ll be able to select a GIF from the most popular selection, or search a keyword and scroll through GIFs until you find what you’re looking for.
Animated conversation
To assist you in your new mission to flood your group chats with relatable animations, WhatsApp has also increased the maximum media sharing limit. Before we were only able to send 10 images or videos in a single batch, but that number has now increased to 30.
To access the Giphy search option and increased media limit you need version 2.17.6 beta of the app, which you can get by joining the Google Play Store beta and downloading it.
It appears, however, that it’s not immediately available to everyone on this version and is rolling out steadily, so you might not be able to access the new features immediately. We'll keep you posted as the feature hits other platforms.
