There are two ways to make GIFs on Android: you can stitch pictures together, or convert videos right into GIF files. Let’s take a look at how to make GIFs from videos.
Turning Videos into GIFs
We have two apps to cover in this method, GIF Me!, and Video to GIF. The latter of the two is only used for video conversion, but GIF Me! can additionally be used for pictures. Speaking of, GIF Me!, let’s take a look at how to put it to work.
App 1: GIF Me!
Pros:
Vibrant but easy to understand interfaceAllows you to make GIFs with on the fly recording, stored pictures, and videoGood amount of editing optionsAble to share GIFs with a wide variety of apps
Cons:
Some options disabled unless you purchase the pro versionGIFs watermarked unless you own the pro-versionAds in the free version can be obnoxious
GIF Me! is a well put together GIF creation app with a slew of options for user creation and sharing. This app is fairly easy to understand, but with it’s crazy amount of options, it may take a while to explain the ins and outs. If the pros and cons of GIF Me! leave you wanting to know more before you either download or pass onto the next app, let’s look at how GIF Me! can make and share GIFs quickly and easily.
Download GIF Me!
If you’re with me already, you can download GIF Me! by clicking the Google Play button right below.Once installed, open GIF Me! to get started with its easy GIF creation tools.
Choosing a GIF Creation Option
Your first time opening GIF Me! you’ll see a banner off to the side that you can open again at any time. You don’t have to click any of the buttons in the banner to get it to close. It will easily stow away when you tap on the right side of the screen, bringing you to your creation options. On this screen, your three options for making GIFs are sitting on top, while your GIF album is the lone button on the bottom. You can use the album to view any GIFs on your phone, not just the ones created with GIF Me!. The first option is Camera, which allows you to – you guessed it – use your camera to make GIFs. The second after that is Import, which lets you take pictures (stills or GIFs) already on your phone and lets you make a GIF out of them. Then last but certainly not least is Video which lets you turn sections of video files on your Android device and make them into a GIF. Since we’re going to be turning a video into a GIF, we’ll want to select Video. However, before we hop into playing around with a video, the options menu needs your attention.
Changing Options and Settings
Now that you have your bearings with the main menu, it’s time to dive into the settings before you really get into the meat of the app. Here you can set the maximum number of frames, frames per second, and a few more editing and creating options. Some of these, however, are locked the way they are until you purchase the pro version. The most obvious offender is the watermark check box. If you don’t want your GIFs to bear the GIF Me! watermark then you’ll need to buy the full version of the app in the play store. The free version of the app can link you to it directly at any time if you want to make the purchase.
Turning Videos Into GIFs
Since this is the arguably most attractive feature of GIF Me!, let’s get started. However, this is also the most time-consuming way to make GIFs in GIF Me!, as GIFs may take as long as a few minutes to process. To start, tap Video GIF Me!’s main menu. This should open up your video gallery. Select any one video you want, even if they aren’t the same as the videos I have on display here. Once you do, you’ll have a few options to play around with. There’s a CREATE button up at the top right, but I don’t want to hit that just yet. You can see below that the video I’m using is about three and a half minutes long. That would be an insanely long GIF, and judging by the red number in the frame count below GIF Me! wouldn’t let me do that regardless. I’ll want to edit the length, size, and frame rate a little if I don’t want this GIF to take five hours to process and all of my phone’s memory. Using the plus and minus signs below I can change the start and end points to make the video a little shorter. Now that I’ve lowered the video’s length down to six seconds the frame count went down to 156. This is much easier to deal with, but we’re not done just yet. We can also edit the frame rate which is currently set to a max of 26, and the resolution of the video which is currently 1280×720. I’ll slide the frame rate down to a nice and even 20, and then I’ll put the size at a comfortable 640×360. Now the frame count has dropped to an even 120, which should be even better than the 156 from earlier, even if not by much. Now since everything is in order, I can finally hit that Create button in the top right. This leads us to the hardest part of all, waiting. A GIF of this size shouldn’t take longer than a minute or two, but when it’s finally done you can view the GIF in your album. When you click on your GIF in your album you’re given two options. You can either delete the GIF if you’ve decided you don’t want it taking up space any more, or hit the button on the far right to pull down an overlay menu. From here, you can choose a place to share it with others or even yourself in a different app. The choice is yours, but if you wanted to edit this GIF you could always import it using the Import button and edit it from there.
Editing and or Sharing your GIF
GIF Me! has a pretty robust GIF editor with more than just a few options at your GIF creating disposal. Instead of going through each individually, let’s take a quick look at the editing menu. Here you can see a number of cubes and circles at the bottom. Each cube brings you to a separate menu that can add an effect or graphic to your GIF, while the circles are different filters. Feel free to tap each to experiment, or tap the download symbol button in the top right corner to bring down and overlay menu.
GIF Me! Extra Capabilities
Back on the main menu there were two other options for GIF making in GIF Me!, so if you’d like to know how to use them I’ll explain them here. Otherwise, the second app for making GIFs out of videos is down below.
Choosing a GIF Creation Option
We’re back at the main menu again, so let’s take a look at your options quickly before messing around with the two other functions of GIF Me! The two options we’ll be focusing on this time are Import and Camera. Since we’re going to be using pictures this time around, we’ll be ignoring the Video portion of the app. However, just like before, we should head into the settings again to make sure everything is on the up and up for these two other options.
Changing Options and Settings
If you haven’t familiarized yourself with the options menu yet, now is the time to do so. Here you can set the maximum number of frames, frames per second, and a few more editing and creating options. Some of these however are locked the way they are until you purchase the pro-version. The most obvious offender is the watermark check box. If you don’t want your GIFs to bear the GIF Me! watermark then you’ll need to buy the full version of the app in the play store. The free version of the app can link you to it directly at any time if you want to make the purchase.
Importing Pictures
Let’s start with importing pictures this time around, as it’s as easy to do in GIF Me! as it in the other two apps above. To get to the import menu all you need to do is tap Import on the main screen, and then you can get started. You can select a maximum of 202 pictures to use, but this is also dependent on how many max frames you selected in the options menu. After you’ve selected all the pictures you want for the GIF you just need to hit DONE at the bottom of the screen. This should take you to the edit menu, which I’ll touch on briefly after explaining how to use GIF Me!’s camera to take pictures.
Recording GIFs with the Camera
Tapping the Camera button on the main page will take you right to where you expect it to, the camera. There’s a lot going on with this first screen, so let’s take a look at what everything does. First, wedged in the upper left corner is a GIF Me! button. You won’t really need to worry about that considering it just opens up the banner that appeared on the main menu again. However, you can press it if you feel a little guilty about not giving the app five stars yet. Staying on the top row the next symbol to the right is the flash symbol, which is currently turned off on my phone so I don’t shine a light everywhere. Next in line is a handy stopwatch that serves as a timer. It can either be turned off, set to one second, or two seconds. When recording with the timer on the screen will count down the number of seconds you have set before starting. The last icon on the top row is an aspect ratio box. It’s currently displaying 1:1, but you can also set it to 3:4. The icon for the aspect ratio even rotates when you rotate your phone. This doesn’t add anything to the recording, but it’s a nice touch that I can appreciate. With the top row out of the way let’s move to the bottom. In the middle we have the red button to start the recording, but on either side of it there are two more buttons to select. Starting on the left we have a picture of a camera. This isn’t just to tell you that you are indeed using a camera right now, but it displays what type of recording mode you’re using. There are three: Normal, Multi Record, and Stop Motion. Normal is self-explanatory. Multi Record lets you start and stop the video where you want to keep going. Stop Motion lets you snap single frames that you can string together for a GIF. In whichever camera mode you select, you have a maximum of 202 frames to use. Then on the right side of the camera, you have a camera switch button, which will switch from the rear-facing camera to the front-facing one. Just like the aspect ratio box this icon will also flip if your phone’s orientation changes. That covers all of the camera options, so if this is the way you want to record just hit the red button in the center when you’re ready. Once you’re satisfied with what you’ve done, you’ll be taken to the editing menu. Editing GIFs made from pictures is handled the same way as GIFs made from videos, so you already have all the knowledge you need to take advantage of it. Edit the GIF to your heart’s content before saving and or sharing it.
App 2: Video to GIF
Pros:
Straight to the point without hassleDoes what it says with just a few tapsStraightforward to share and saveFree
Cons:
No editing options to speak ofNo settings to changeA lot of ads since it’s free
Video to GIF is a small app that does just what it promises to do; it turns a video into a GIF. You can share the GIF too when you’re done with it, or just save it to your phone for later. The only real problem with Video to GIF is also its strength. It doesn’t do anything else besides turning videos into GIFs. If you’re looking to record your own you’ll have to look elsewhere. With that said, let’s take a look at how to turn your videos into GIFs with the app that does just what it says.
Download Video to GIF
There’s no shocker here that you’ll need to download the app before you can use it. You can easily get to it from the Google Play button below. Once you’ve downloaded it and let it install it’s time to start the incredibly short process to convert a video file into a GIF.
Navigating Video to GIF
When you first open up Video to GIF the interface may look a little confusing at first. There’s only one button on screen you need to worry about, all of the buttons on the side of the screen just link to different web pages. In the center of the screen should be a power button. Thankfully, this button doesn’t turn your phone off and instead will let you pick a video to convert. Give it a quick tap and you’re on your way.
Picking a Video
After hitting the power button to turn on the process you’re taken to your gallery. Once here, navigate to the section where your videos are being stored. All of mine are kept in one place, so it’s easy enough to get to. After I open up that section I have three videos to choose from, and I think the one in the lower bottom left will make a good GIF, so I’ll use that. When selecting your video just give it a tap and you’ll be whisked away to the next screen.
Converting the Video
After selecting your video, you’re quickly taken to the convert page which will look something like this: You may not have a dog in the middle of your screen, but there should be a convert button at the bottom. There isn’t much more to the process than this, just give the convert button a tap and wait a little while for your video to be converted. The clip I converted was around 40 seconds, and it around a minute for the process to finish.
Saving and Sharing your GIF
Once your video has finished being converted into a GIF, you’ll see your GIF up above and two symbols below. The first symbol below that looks like an envelope is used for sharing. Giving the envelope a light tap will summon a new menu that brings up all of your apps that you can share the GIF you made with. The second symbol off to the right that looks like a floppy is for saving. Feel free to name the GIF anything you like, then just hit the save button and you’re done.
Now that you have your GIFs, what else can you do with them?
If you’re looking to do more with your GIFs than just share them around, there are also apps on the market that let you use them as live wallpapers. I know three that are relatively small downloads, and most important of all, free. For all of your GIF to wallpaper needs you can use:
GIF Livewallpaper Maker
AnimGIF Live Wallpaper 2 Lite
GIF Live Wallpaper SettingAny of these three apps will let you turn the GIFs you just made, or GIFs you already have saved, into live wallpapers for your Android phone, free of charge.
Conclusion
From the two apps above, GIF Me! provides a better experience if you’re looking to customize your clip into the you were imagining, and even has picture functionality. Video to GIF, on the other hand, is a very quick and easy way to turn a video into a GIF without fuss or frustration. Did you manage to find a better app for GIFs than the two above, or a different GIF service that you prefer? If you did, please share it in the comments! Featured Image
