WhatsApp Users Receive A “Tap to Download” Option for GIFs

• A new update to WhatsApp offers a “Tap to Download” feature for linked GIFs.
• Prior to the update, downloading a GIF was not necessary to forward them.
• The feature is available in the latest 2.18.306 build of the app as well as the Beta.

One of the qualities of life changes that WhatsApp users have wanted since quite some time is the ability to download GIFs that are hyperlinked. The social media app is capable of previewing GIFs from websites like GFYCat, Giphy and more but forwarding them to other users causes the hyperlink to be sent as well.

With the latest update to the app, all forwarded GIFs will have a Tap to Download option that will download the GIF and send it to other users, removing the need for a hyperlink after you’ve received a GIF. If you do not have access to the feature, simply update your app to 2.18.306, and you will be able to download hyperlinked GIFs. No changes have been made to the built-in GIF feature as they are sent without links.

Image Courtesy of Android Police

Users will also be able to add their own captions on top of GIFs, keep or remove the hyperlink and even draw on top of it. Emoji and Sticker support is also available if you want to customize the images. Tapping on the Send button after editing a GIF will remove the hyperlinks, and it’ll be the same as uploading any other image from your phone.

WhatsApp’s new Tap to Download feature is available for GIFs only at the moment and does not work for other formats like JPG, PNG, WEBP, WEBM, and MP4. If the recipient does not use the Tap to Download option only a preview of the GIF is visible while tapping on the button downloads a full-sized GIF to the user’s device.

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