GIF text messages working on Galaxy

[slp15]

I'm not sure how long this has been working but a friend of mine with an iPhone just text me with a GIF file and it actually played through my default Samsung text messaging app. So to test it out I text a GIF to a Android friend and it also animated on his phone and mine. Does anyone know if marshmallow added this feature or enabled it on Galaxy devices?

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[SpookDroid]

Ummm... I'm not sure. I've always been able to play GIFs since I can remember. At least I know I've tried in the Note 3, Note 4, Note 5, and S6 (and S7 Edge of course).

 

[Eddster]

I'm not sure how long this has been working but a friend of mine with an iPhone just text me with a GIF file and it actually played through my default Samsung text messaging app. So to test it out I text a GIF to a Android friend and it also animated on his phone and mine. Does anyone know if marshmallow added this feature or enabled it on Galaxy devices?

Posted via the Android Central App

This has worked for years. The issue has more to do with carrier imposed file size restrictions on regular SMS texting than the phone or OS version. US carriers limit file sizes for SMS attachments which lead to significant compression of images and video. This means that high quality pics will be compressed, some gifs will be compressed to the point of de-animation, and video is compressed to a point where I wouldn't even text video. One of the major advantages to iPhones (IMO) when they're communicating between each other is that iMessage COMPLETELY bypasses carriers and thus you can send high quality pics, gifs, and video directly through the "texting" app. Android phones don't enjoy this advantage without the use of third party apps which can be a challenge to get people to download and use. Even still, each app has its drawbacks. For example, you can't send gifs through WhatsApp and you can't send video through Hangouts on Android (but you can on iOS oddly enough). Again, the beauty of iMessage is that it handles everything seamlessly IF you are communicating between iPhones or other Apple devices. And therein lies the biggest disadvantage of iMessage. It would really be a dream if Apple would open it up and make it cross platform. But I know that's very unlikely.

Posted via the Android Central App