How to Make a GIF From a Video on iPhone
Turn Videos Into GIFs with the Shortcuts App
To make a GIF from a video on your iPhone, use the built-in Shortcuts app. Add Apple's ready-made "Video to GIF" shortcut from the Gallery tab, run it, and pick your clip. It's free.
The steps are the same on an iPhone or iPad:
- Open the Shortcuts app and go to the Gallery tab.
- Search for "Video to GIF", tap the shortcut, then tap Add Shortcut.
- Run it, then select the video you want to convert.
- If the clip is too long, drag the handles at either end to trim it.
You can also build your own. The app has hundreds of actions you can chain together, according to Apple Support. One of them, Make GIF, creates GIFs from videos, screen recordings, or Live Photos in your albums.
In iDownloadBlog's test of Make GIF, the export quality was fine for a web page but not for a high-quality GIF.
Trim the Clip Before You Create a GIF from Video
A GIF is a run of still frames, each shown for a set delay. More seconds means more frames, and more frames means a heavier file.
So trim your video to the one moment you want before you convert video to GIF. The Gallery version only asks you to trim when the clip runs too long. The Make GIF action lets you shorten the clip with the scrubber (the timeline bar) at the top of the screen.
Third-Party Apps to Convert Video to GIF on iPhone
Third-party apps are the other route for creating GIFs from videos, when you want settings Apple's version doesn't give you. Video to GIF - GIF Maker, for example, is free, with a $1.99 in-app purchase to remove ads. It needs iOS 13 or later and shows 4.4 out of 5 from about 1.8K ratings at the time of writing.
Read the privacy label before you install one of these apps. This one lists location, identifiers, and usage data among the data it collects.
Turn a Video into a GIF Online, No App Needed
Many online tools upload your clip to a server before they convert it. That's a problem for family videos or anything private.
Vidmini converts videos to GIFs without uploading them. You can make a GIF from an iPhone video in Safari, and the file never leaves your phone. There's nothing to install, no account, and no watermark.
You choose the length (2 to 15 seconds), the width (320, 480, 640 or 800 pixels) and the frame rate (10, 12, 15 or 20 frames per second). The GIF loops forever and has no sound. There's no size limit set by us: on a phone, free memory and storage are the only limits.
GIF File Size and Quality Limits on iPhone
Some quality loss comes from the format itself, not from your iPhone. The GIF89a specification (the document that defines the GIF format) caps each color table at 256 colors. A video frame usually holds far more shades than that, so the palette has to squeeze them.
The same spec says GIF was never meant as a platform for animation, only that it "can be done in a limited way". Each frame's timing is stored in hundredths of a second.
When file size matters, keep the clip short, pick a narrow width, and stay at 10 or 12 frames per second.