Pinning in Motion: Pinterest Said to Be Testing Posts With GIFs
The popular social-media site is toying with the idea of allowing users to add the animated images to their pinboards.
By Geoff Weiss •
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In the near future, posts on Pinterest are bound to become decidedly more kinetic.
A select group of Pinterest users are now able to pin and view GIFs on their boards as the company is reportedly in the process of rolling out the animating feature to its roughly 70 million members.
For the uninitiated, GIF is an acronym for graphics interchange format -- a type of compressed file that is commonly used on the web for short animations.
While GIFs previously appeared as still images when uploaded to the site, now a play button appears for users who are a part of the test -- including the fashion search engine Wantering.
"We've heard from the community that they'd like the ability to post and view GIFs as Pins," the company confirmed to Mashable, "so we're testing ways to make that happen."
The company declined, however, to elaborate on how many users were testing the function or when it would be available for all users -- if ever.
GIFs made their way onto Facebook and Twitter last fall thanks to the startup Giphy, which allows users to share GIFs -- but only using Giphy URLs. The social networks themselves do not allow a native upload of GIF files.
Related: Pinterest Buys Startup Specializing in Visual Search Technology
