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How to make your own GIFs with Twitter app

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How to record a GIF with the Twitter iPhone app
Making a Gif with Twitter’s iPhone app is a snap.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Twitter made creating a GIF as easy as posting an image. Using the iPhone camera, users can capture a short video in the social-networking service’s app that is automatically converted into a GIF.

Here’s how to make your own GIFs with the Twitter app. It’s easy and fun.

How to use a GIF for your iPhone wallpaper

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Look at this wallpaper. Just look at it.Look at this wallpaper. Just look at it.
Look at this wallpaper. Just look at it.
Photo: Jake Cvnningham/Flickr CC

Wouldn’t it be great if you could take that awesome (and hilarious!) GIF, and use it as an animated wallpaper for your iPhone? You could wake your iPhone, press on the screen, and watch the action unfold. Over and over. And over.

Sadly, GIF wallpapers are impossible. Or are they? Well, you can’t set an actual GIF to run as your lock-screen wallpaper, but you can convert any GIF into a Live Photo, and use that to animate your iPhone’s lock screen.

Here’s how.

How to send GIFs without sending GIFs

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It’s hard to convey a moving photo with a still image, but doesn’t this smoothie look delicious?
It’s hard to convey a moving photo with a still image, but doesn’t this smoothie look delicious?
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Quick question: How do you send a GIF selfie from your iPhone? One answer is just don’t bother. It’s too much hassle. Another way is to use this handy shortcut to make one. But there’s a third way, which is also the best way: Don’t send a GIF at all.

If you and your intended GIF recipient both use iOS devices, there’s a much better option.

Give the perfect GIF with GIFwrapped [50 Essential iOS Apps #37]

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You'll be amazed at how easy GIFwrapped makes finding the perfect animated GIF.
You'll be amazed at how easy GIFwrapped makes finding the perfect animated GIF.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: GIFwrapped In the ’90s and early 2000, animated GIFs were a staple of web design. Today, they’re still imperative to the web, but for entirely different reasons. With GIFwrapped, you can search a massive database of GIFs, create a personal library of your favorites, and save the ones you find on social media for later.

Easily convert Live Photos into GIFs in iOS 11 [Quick Tips]

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iPhone X Live Photos

Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Live Photos are great. They can capture special moments in a way that some pictures just can’t. The little movie clips that play when you force-touch a Live Photo can show the joy or wonder of the image. But therein lies the problem. They’re basically video clips embedded into photos, which makes sharing them to non-iOS users a nightmare.

A plethora of apps can convert Live Photos into GIFs or a standard video clip, but iOS 11 makes it even easier. Check out our video below to see how to quickly convert a Live Photo into a GIF.

Instagram might finally get a ‘regram’ button

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These Instagram tips will help you connect with photographers who share your interests.
Currating your feed is about to get even easier.
Photo: Lee Peterson/Cult of Mac

Reposting your favorite photos on Instagram is about to get a lot easier if a new feature that’s currently in testing makes it out to the public.

Instagram appears to be testing a button that allows users to “regram” button that allows users to share posts to their timeline. There’s no guarantee when the feature will make it out to the public, but it if it does, it could finally mean the end of horrible third-party reposting apps.

How to make animated GIFs of your iPhone screen in iOS 11

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workflow gif
Making screen-capture videos in iOS 11 is easy, and turning them into GIFs is even easier.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Thanks to the new screen-recording feature in iOS 11, you can now make a video of whatever you’re doing on your iDevice, and share it. I use this for how-tos (although ironically, not this one), developers can use it to make videos of their apps for the App Atore (the new iOS 11 App Store features videos quite prominently), and regular folks can use it to record a snippet of a YouTube video or suchlike. But what if you prefer to share your optimized video as a huge, bandwidth-hogging GIF instead?

Well, iOS has you covered there, too, but you’ll need to download Apple’s free Workflow app.

How to use Instagram Face Filters, and post them to your public feed

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instagram-face-filters
The new Instagram Face Filters are pretty rad. Here's how to use them.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Instagram just added Face Filters, letting you add things like spectacles, bunny ears, and princess’ tiaras to your video selfies. Right now, you can only share these clips to your Instagram Stories, or send them directly to other users. But there’s a workaround that lets you post them like regular Instagram videos, putting them in your feed for all your followers to “enjoy.” Let’s find out how.