WhatsApp is among the best communication apps for Android. It is used by over a billion people daily to send billions of messages. That includes sharing cat and dog videos, memes, funny video clips, and GIFs with friends or family. While WhatsApp has supported GIF sharing for a long time, there's a weird quirk: you need to tap on the GIF to start its playback. This restriction makes sense for videos, but GIFs lose their relevance in a conversation if they do not animate automatically. Thankfully, this could soon change in the future.
WABetaInfo reports WhatsApp is testing automatic playback for GIFs shared in conversations in the latest beta build of Android v2.23.10.2. Currently, if you share a GIF on WhatsApp, a "GIF" icon will appear on the media file. You (or the recipient) must tap on it to start playback. So, WhatsApp adding support for auto-playing GIFs would be a welcome addition. However, the platform will animate the GIF only once. After the playback ends, you'll need to tap the media file to play it again.
The report claims WhatsApp has rolled out automatic GIF playback in conversations for selected beta testers of its app. However, this behavior is already live across two of my WhatsApp accounts. Any GIF I share (or sent to me) animates once before its playback stops.
While auto-playing GIF support seems like a minor enhancement, it shows the importance WhatsApp is now giving to improve the messaging experience on its platform. This is a far cry from how the app was half a decade ago, offering a bare-bones experience.
If automatic GIF playback is not already live for you, it should only be a matter of time before WhatsApp rolls out this change to the public. And remember, WhatsApp media files can occupy a lot of space on your phone. So keep deleting unwanted WhatsApp media from your phone regularly.