Twitter has been relaxing a number of its iron-clad restrictions lately, to the delight of its users everywhere. The microblogging site has now decided to extend this new sense of freedom to GIFs by increasing their size limit to 15MB.
This might not sound like much, but it takes on a whole new meaning when considering the fact that GIFs were limited to 5MB before. The increase hasn’t been announced officially yet, though it has appeared on Twitter’s support page. According to the rules, animated GIFs can go up to 5MB on mobile and 15MB on the web.
Even TweetDeck hasn’t gotten round to supporting the new changes. 15MB is a huge leap forward for avid GIF users since it means they no longer have to compromise with low-quality animations to get their point across. Moreover, the increase naturally translates to longer GIFs which could fit in entire movies or TV shows.
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Twitter’s previous forays into lowering its restrictions resulted in the site raising the limit for Vine videos from a measly 6 seconds to a comparatively luxurious 140 seconds. Even the company’s own in-stream videos can last for 140 seconds now. The site seems to be building towards a platform which is less fleeting and more concrete, ensuring people stay within its walls for longer instead of wandering off to other corners of the internet.
For instance, Twitter recently announced the introduction of stickers. The site put its own hashtag-esque spin on emoticons in its efforts to distinguish itself from Snapchat, allowing members to click on any emoji to see how people around the world were utilizing them. It’s a neat feature which may just manage to help the site score some points among its user base.