There’s a hush-hush going on in the social media circuit that Pinterest is testing animated GIFs. The little birdy from Twitter chirped this ‘supposedly’ undercover development taking place at the Pinterest labs yesterday. Now you might wonder why’s all this secrecy and what’s it all about? Well, to cut to the chase, let me tell you that Pinterest unlike its big brothers – Facebook, Google Plus and Twitter has never been vocal about their in-house experiments and only those developments which pass the conformity test from its highest management gets due approval to go public. But then what happened now? Let me explain.
GIFs are social engagement boosters
It is for this reason particularly that Pinterest has turned their attention towards GIFs and will soon make the facility available to users to pin and share animated GIF images on their boards. Social media scientists are of the view that Pinterest has taken cue from Google Plus – Google’s very own social networking site that didn’t perform well as compared to Facebook in spite of huge expectations. They noted that since Google Plus allow GIF images and that a majority of the highest viewed, shared and talked about posts in G+ are GIF animated images, Pinterest is simply trying to invest on the same and bite on to Google Plus’s growing supremacy in the GIF domain.
How animated GIFs will work on Pinterest?
Now, that’s a million dollar question given that no one is pretty sure on that. But as of now the word which has come out is that, the animated GIF feature would be available only to some select pinners. Once a user uploads an animated GIF image on to a pin board, they can play or pause the animation at their sweet will. All they have to do is control their action by clicking on a tiny play button at the lower left-hand corner of each image.
A Pinterest spokesman was heard saying that they (Pinterest) are always trying to enhance the usability of their platform so that people can pin and share things they love as well as discover new things along the way. Animated GIFs are no doubt going to add dynamism to the already vibrant Pinterest platform.
What to Expect in coming Days
Expect the unexpected! Well that’s what social media is; you can never predict when a new trend will catch up with the social media population. Take for example the curious case of the GIFs. Even a year back GIFs were just an image format and now animated GIFs are ruling the popularity charts in Google Plus. Major brands are drawn to this trend so much so that even Verizon has introduced an animated GIF image as their profile banner moving with the trend. So expect outstanding developments in Pinterest in the coming days.