Is it Time to Start Replacing the GIF?

At least as far as online sports media goes, GIFs make the world go round. We use them to show bloopers and Peyton Manning faces, home runs and butt fumbles. Many writers and analysts use GIFs to help show pitching mechanics, football plays, and any other subjects that can benefit from some video evidence. It’s a useful tool, but one that’s around two decades old. Technology has better offerings now, and one of the bigger players in the GIF game is making a big change. Online hosting giant Imgur has made their intentions clear: it’s time to move on from the GIF.

The demand for higher quality and longer GIFs have surpassed the ability for the file type to keep up with us. Instead of constantly relying on the older GIF — technology has improved a bit since the 1980’s where it was first introduced — Imgur has decided to alter course and go with a much newer technology, MP4s. The media hosting site announced plans to convert all old GIFs to HTML5 compatible MP4 videos, labeling the files as the all new GIFV file type.

The new files are smaller, creating less strain on Imgur, load faster on mobile devices and are able to viewed on any platform. Another hosting site, Gfycat, has been using HTML 5 for months now and their home page even sports how much bandwidth they’ve saved using HTML 5 rather than GIFs. There is a worthy debate going on as to why Imgur decided to go with the MP4 format rather than WebM and the probable answer is compatibility. At the time of writing. WebM is not available on any iOS version without downloading a free video player, unless you choose to jailbreak your device. Rather than force a large user base to download compatibility apps, Imgur has taken a shorter and faster route to replace the GIF.

For a comparison of GIF vs HTML 5, look no further than Gfycat’s FAQ page. The length and quality — not to mention the ability to pause, rewind or view frame by frame, it’s an MP4 video, remember? — are identical and the HTLM 5 is much smaller than the GIF.

Don’t expect GIFs to disappear overnight, they’re too well established for that, but anticipate more and more websites moving to the MP4 or GIFVs. They’re superior to GIFs in every way and are compatible on all devices. If WebM becomes the new standard video type then perhaps Imgur will once again change, but for now their strides to replace the GIF are already underway.