From time to time, you may have wanted to save a really funny or cool GIF to use later or maybe watch it on loop. While you can easily do this on a lot of sites, Twitter, one of the best places to find awesome GIFs, won’t let you do that easily.
In fact, you can’t download an animated GIF file from Twitter directly. You can only share the post or its link and that’s that. And there’s a reason for that. Twitter GIFs aren’t really GIFs. When a user uploads a GIF file on the platform, Twitter converts it into another file that is a lot more similar to a video file than an image. In other words, all the Twitter GIFs you see are just video files, with the playback button removed and running on the loop for all eternity.
Fortunately, there are ways to download a GIF from Twitter. You can use third-party websites if you’re on Twitter desktop, while there are apps available on App Store and Google Play Store to download a GIF from Twitter.
If you want to know how to save GIFs from Twitter easily, read on.
How to Save a Twitter GIF from Desktop
Saving a Twitter GIF from your desktop will require you to use third-party websites. Fortunately, most of these don’t require you to create an account or to log in. It also only takes several seconds to a few minutes to save your file.
For starters, here’s a list of sites you can use to download GIFs:
Twitter-Gif-DownloadTwitter Video DownloaderTwdownload
All you need is to get the link of the GIF image you want to download and then paste it into the search bar of any of these websites. To get the link to the GIF image, you can do the following steps:
Step 1
Go to Twitter.
Step 2
Find the GIF image you want to download.
Step 3
Click Share (arrow icon at the bottom).
Step 4
A pop-up menu will appear. Select Copy link to tweet. You will know if the link has been successfully copied to your clipboard because a notification will appear at the bottom telling you so.
Step 5
Open any of the third-party websites above. For this guide, we’ll be using Twitter-Gif-Download.
Step 6
Paste the video URL on the search bar, and then hit download.
Step 7
Wait for the website to finish downloading your file, and after that, you can now find it on your downloads.
Now, your video has been downloaded. Yes, you read that right: you just downloaded a video. Remember that Twitter converts any GIF files to something like a video? So if you save GIFs through this site, you are technically downloading Twitter videos.
While you can download Twitter videos through these websites, you can’t save them as a GIF file easily–even if you wanted to. You can just keep it that way. But the good news is, you can of course use a video to GIF converter online to turn it back to a GIF.
Here are some sites you can use to convert video files to GIFs:
EZGIFcloudconvert
You can also use other websites or software to convert the file back. But for this guide, we’ll use EZGIF as an example. It’s really easy and quick.
Follow these steps:
Step 1
Choose the converted video file from your computer and hit Upload video.
Step 2
Wait for a few seconds while the website processes your video file. Once done, scroll down to find the button Convert to GIF and click it.
Step 3
Again, wait for the website to convert your file and create an Output GIF. Then, scroll down again and click the floppy disk icon on the right side of the screen to save the image. Your GIF has now been downloaded.
You can also do this on your mobile device. Just open your browser and use the websites above to download GIFs from Twitter.
However, with mobile devices, there’s an easier way to download GIFs without the hassle of converting back the video from mp4 to a GIF image. You just have to download a third-party app to download GIFs from Twitter easily.
How to Save a GIF from Twitter from iPhone
If you’re an iPhone user, you can use the app GIFwrapped. You can download this on the App Store for free, although there’s also a premium option available if you want to use this app without ads.
To download a GIF from Twitter, follow the steps below. Make sure GIFwrapped is already installed on your device. Once the app is downloaded to your phone, do the following:
Step 1
Open the Twitter app and look for the GIF you want to save.
Step 2
Click the Share icon, which you can usually find at the bottom of the tweet.
Step 3
Select Copy link.
Step 4
Open GIFwrapped and paste the link on the search bar. Tap search.
Step 5
Select the GIF you want to download and tap the share button, which you can find at the bottom of the app. Then, tap Save to Library and/or Save to Photos to download GIF.
How to Save a Twitter GIF from Android
Saving a GIF from Twitter on your Android phone is quite similar, except that you will be using the app Tweet2gif. It also has a premium version called Tweet2gif Plus which gives additional features, including the ability to change the quality of your video.
Make sure Tweet2gif is already installed on your Android phone before performing the steps below. Once the app is downloaded to your phone, do the following:
Step 1
Open the Twitter app and look for the GIF you want to save.
Step 2
Click the Share icon, which you can usually find at the bottom of the tweet.
Step 3
Select Copy link.
Step 4
Open the Tweet2gif app and paste the tweet URL on the link field.
Step 5
Tap the Download GIF button to save your image.