Sunday, June 22, 2014

GIFs on Twitter?


Twitter now supports GIFs –

In line to my point on previous posts about how new media will still be married to traditional media, at least based on convenience for both sides. 
Twitter recently announced that its tweets will be supporting GIFs (graphic interchange format – could be animated graphics as well)

First interesting move from twitter: You will be able to post a GIF on your twitter account only through Twitter's website and its iOS and Android apps. So, in a way, Twitter is bringing everybody into their platforms, all those users who will like to post GIFs, among who, there might be new some users to twitter. Interesting way to “talk twitter to everybody”.
Second interesting decision in response to today’s users demands: GIFs won't animate automatically, likely to prevent users from downloading large files that they don't need. Opening up a tweet on its own will, however, immediately begin playing the GIF. Again, a way to tell their users that they have nothing to worry, they won’t be bombarded with pop-ups and invasive ads.
Support for GIFs has been a highly requested feature, and adding it in makes reading through a Twitter feed much simpler, since users won't have to open up a new window every time they want to view one. And it won’t only affect twitter’s end users, but Brands as well. Brands now will have the chance to post more dynamic and attracting posts which will help to communicate to their consumers in a more holistic way (connecting with ads on other channels – TV, print etc).

In conclusion, new media will still be getting the best out of traditional media, and work to attract all consumers by using different tools to close the gap between users of new channels of communication with those of traditional ones.


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