Twitter has finally recognized the popularity of animated GIFs and is now providing support for this type of image on the timeline of its users.

"Starting today, you can share and view animated GIFs," Twitter tweeted on Wednesday. Also accompanying the tweet was an animated GIF which had a man holding a fluffy and adorable dog. The caption of the GIF read 'GIFs got me like'.

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Popular social networking websites such as Tumblr and Pinterest have provided support for GIFs for a long time. However, the social media giants Facebook and Twitter were keeping GIFs at bay, and were not keen on providing support for them.

With Twitter recently changing its policy to open its doors to animated GIFs, only Facebook remains under the awaiting gaze of its users seeking support for the sometimes-hilarious, sometimes-crazy image loops which are loved by many. Apparently, Facebook believes that animated GIFs will mar the timelines of its users.

GIFs on Twitter, however, won't animate automatically. The users will have to click on them to let them work. The move was likely taken by Twitter to help users save bandwidth, or to avoid playing the GIFs which they don't want.

Twitter GIFs work the same way as they do on a mobile device where a "play" button is provided so that users can animate them if and when they want to.

TagsTwitter animated GIF, GIF