Every day it’s estimated that one billion GIFs and 100 billion emojis are shared on emails and texts and across social media. Are we talking your language?
What is a GIF? It stands for Graphics Interchange Format and is basically a file that displays short moving images. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so is a short video worth a million? The GIF ‘celebrated’ its 30th birthday last year.
What is an emoji? The word is made up of Japanese words meaning picture (e) and character (moji). It is a small image, either static or animated, that usually represents a facial expression, an entity or a concept.
Here’s how to access emojis and GIFs.
How to activate emojis on an Apple device
Launch Settings and tap on General
Tap on Keyboard and then again on Add New Keyboard
Scroll down the alphabetical list to emoji and tap on it to appear in your list of active keyboards.
Close out of Settings.
Now that the extra keyboard has been added, you will find emoji under your default keyboard configuration. You can now begin to use emoji icons as a means of having more expressive conversations over text or email.
How to access emojis on the Apple keyboard
Enter into any text entry location: Messages, Notes or email.
Tap on the globe icon next to the Spacebar button to access the newly enabled emoji keyboard.
How to enable emojis on an Android device
Open your Settings menu.
Tap on Language and Input
Go to Android Keyboard or Google Keyboard
Click on Settings
Scroll to Personal Dictionary or Add on Dictionaries
Tap the + (plus) sign to add a new shortcut.
Samsung Keyboard
Open the keyboard in a messaging app.
Press and hold on the Settings cog icon, next to the Space Bar.
Tap the smiley face.
Enjoy emoji!
How to access GIFs on Apple devices
Open Messages and compose a new message or open an existing one.
Tap the ‘A’ (Apps) icon to the left of the text field.
If images don’t pop up first, tap the icon with four bubbles in the bottom left corner.
Tap on images to browse, search and choose a GIF.
How to access GIFs on Android devices
When writing a message, tap the smiley icon (where emojis are located – see above), which launches the emojis screen. You’ll then see a GIF button on the lower right.
Once you tap the GIF button, you’ll see the suggestions screen. Scroll through the categories and touch a GIF to insert it into the conversation.
Additionally, you can use the Search GIFs box to find something based on a topic of your choosing.
So, here are some of the perfect gifs for every occasion:
If you’re wanting to send some love, you can use a gif like this one:
Or, for emojis, use a heart variation like the ones below:
Eager to make that birthday message a little bit more special? Here’s a cute animation to use:
Here are the birthday emojis to keep an eye out for:
How about adding to your joke after you’ve sent it? A laughing face may perhaps be funnier than the joke.
There are thousands more yet to be discovered from sport, to animals, food, nature and politics, all of which you can find on your keyboard at any time.
Give it a go and let us know how you went.
Related articles:
How to use Snapchat
The power of emojis
Embarrassing text messages
