Gifs are short, soundless video clips that are often clipped from famous scenes from television shows and movies.

They are a very popular posting tool across all of social media, but particularly on Twitter where users are limited to 280 characters. After all, they say that a picture is worth a thousand words so a Gif must be worth ten thousand, right?

As a result, it can be very frustrating when you go to post a Gif on Twitter to find that that the functionality isn’t working like it usually does.

In this article, we are going to look at the most common reasons behind this issue and also look at how you can go about fixing it. Let’s get started.

Twitter GIFs not working – The most common reason

The most common reason why the Gifs function on Twitter might not be working is all to do with connectivity.

In order to post to search for and post a Gif on Twitter, users are required to have a strong and secured internet connection, whether that be through Wi-Fi or mobile data.

If you are trying to post without any internet connection at all then you won’t even be able to browse through all available Gifs, never mind successfully post one.

To check if you are connected to the internet, while using the Twitter mobile phone app on an iOS device, please follow these steps:

Navigate to the settings app and select ‘Wi-Fi’.
Check to see if there is a blue tick next to one of the available networks.
If there isn’t a blue tick next to any of the networks, then select one of them, enter in the correct password and secure the connection.

If you aren’t located in an area where you are either a) close to a Wi-Fi network or b) unaware of the necessary passwords, then you will have to fall back on to your mobile data.

To connect to the internet on an iOS device using mobile data, please follow these steps:

Head back to the settings app and select ‘mobile data’.
Ensure that the toggle next to mobile data is selected and showing as green.
Wait for your phone to establish a secure 3G, 4G or 5G connection. An icon will appear on the header of your phone screen letting you know when a connection has been secured.

If you are still unable to connect to the internet after trying both Wi-Fi and mobile data, then you must be in a place where the signal is terrible.

This means you need to give up on the idea of posting a Gif on Twitter for the time being.

There are other reasons, besides connectivity, behind the issue of Gifs not working on Twitter. Let’s take a look at some of them:

An out of date version of Twitter

Twitter often runs updates, which bring the app up to speed on the latest technologies. If you are using an old version of Twitter then you may be trying to access Gifs in a way that is no longer compatible with the app.

To check if Twitter needs updating on your iOS device, please follow these steps:

Head to the App Store.
Select your profile icon on the upper right hand side of the screen.
Scroll down the screen – you will be greeted by a subsection which lets you know which apps on your phone are due an update.
Select ‘update’ next to Twitter if you see that it requires an update.

Once Twitter has finished updating, fire it back up and try posting a Gif again to see if the update has done the trick.

If it has, then it may well be worth your time setting apps to update automatically to avoid the situation from repeating itself further down the line. In order to do this, follow these steps:

Go to the settings app.
Select ‘App Store’.
Ensure that the toggle next ‘App Updates’ in the ‘automatic downloads’ subsection is selected so that it is showing green.

A bugged app and/or device

Sometimes your phone and its apps can become bugged for unknown reasons. This most frequently happens if your phone and/or app hasn’t been able to reboot or reset in a while.

As a result, there are two things that you are worth a try if you suspect that this could be the issue behind Gifs not working on Twitter.

Firstly, it is worth deleting the app and reinstalling it from the app store. A fresh, clean version of Twitter could result in all of the app’s features, including Gif posting, working seamlessly.

Secondly, it could be worth rebooting your phone to see if it’s your device that is bugged as opposed to the app.

To do this on an iOS device hold down the the button on the upper right hand side of your phone at the same time as the upper volume button.

Swipe across on the screen that will pop up to turn your phone off, wait 30 seconds, then press the same two buttons again to fire your phone back up.