Why is Twitter official GIF animation converted to MP4?



Twitter supports GIF animation, GIF animation is also available from iPhone · Android applicationAlthough it was announced that it became, in fact, the GIF animation published on Twitter is not a GIF file but an MP4 file. Why is this happening? So, create embedded codeEmbedlyI have summarized it in my blog.

Embedly Blog, What Twitter Is not Telling You About GIFs
http://blog.embed.ly/post/89265229166/what-twitter-isnt-telling-you-about-gifs

Twitter is releasing GIF animation, so various GIF animations are posted on Twitter. For example, the following girls with a match sold embedded theme GIF animationKozaki YusukeMr.'s post.

However, when you right click on the animation, the control menu of MP4 file such as "pause", "mute", "play speed" was displayed.


Furthermore, selecting "copy the URL of the video" and pasting it in the address bar ......


「https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video/BqeJ0QgCQAMlxyM.mp4」と表示されました。


When you open the file on the browser, the sound is muted, but the pause / play menu is also displayed.


Actually comparing the animation of the GIF file with the GIF animation displayed on Twitter looks like the following.

First of all this is an animation in GIF format.


And this is MP4 format Twitter expression GIF animation.


According to Embedly, there are two reasons why "Why purposely convert GIF files to MP4 files?"

First, one is a problem of image size. It is difficult to compress GIF files that make one motion by making several images consecutively. Even with similar animation, 500 KB in GIF format and 100 KB in MP4 format sometimes may be. You can feel the weight of the file even if you look at the PC browser, but when viewing the animation on the mobile terminal, the difference in weight between GIF format and MP4 format should be quite large. Twitter converts GIF files to MP4 files so that users do not feel "heavy".

There is no way to convert GIF to still images, but it is almost impossible to stop GIF animation that keeps moving on the web on the web. However, if it is an MP4 file it can be played back or quiesced and if you think "this is funny" it is also possible to play slow.

Incidentally,"GIFMAGAZINE" that you can post GIF animation images on Twitter while movingIn fact, it is not an MP4 file but actually embeds a GIF format animation.

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in Web Service, Posted by darkhorse_log