You Can Now Post Bigger GIF Files Of Up To 15 MB On Twitter, But There's A Catch

Aaron Mamiit, Tech Times 12 July 2016, 09:07 am

Social media platform Twitter has increased the size of animated GIF files that users can upload to 15 MB, opening up the possibility of using higher quality and/or longer GIFs in situations when simple text will not be enough.

Previously, the limit on the file size of GIFs was 5 MB, similar to the limit for photos. That has been the limit since Twitter launched GIF support back in 2014 and native GIF support through a partnership with Giphy and Riffsy back in February.

There was no big announcement on the increased limit, with the change just discovered on the photo and GIF FAQ section of the website.

The section stating that the limit has been bumped up to 15 MB also reveals the catch for the new feature. The 15 MB GIF size limit is said to be only currently applicable to the web version of the social media platform, with the 5 MB limit for GIFs to remain for Twitter's mobile app.

This does not mean that the increased GIF size limit will not be coming to the mobile app of Twitter though. Perhaps Twitter will first see if its infrastructure will be able to handle the extra load of bigger GIFs on the platform before rolling out the feature to mobile, while also considering how much of an impact uploading bigger GIF files would have on the data plans of users.

The move to increase the allowed file size for GIFs on the web version of the platform could be considered part of the company's recent initiative to remove the logistical limitation of its social media networks. Vine, owned by Twitter, increased the length of videos that can be uploaded on the platform to 140 seconds last month, and almost a year ago, Twitter did away with the limit of 140 characters in direct messages sent through the network.

With the increased GIF file size limit, Twitter users can expect a flood of GIFs coming their way in the social media platform. It remains to be seen when Twitter will expand the offering to its mobile users, but it would not be a bad idea to hope that it will happen soon.

The move might allow users to slightly forget the hacking attacks that have recently been rampant on Twitter, which has Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey as the latest victim. The hacks, conducted by three-man team OurMine, are being carried out to test the security of the social media accounts of prominent names in the tech industry.