Facebook buys GIPHY, the most popular gif service

Facebook has bought the world’s most popular animated photo-sharing service, GIPHY, and made it part of Instagram.

Vishal Shah, Facebook’s vice president of product division, confirmed in a blog post. He wrote “GIPHY, a leader in visual expression and creation, is joining the Facebook company today as part of the Instagram team.”

“GIPHY makes everyday conversations more entertaining, and so we plan to further integrate their GIF library into Instagram and our other apps so that people can find just the right way to express themselves.”

GIPHY APIs have been used by Facebook for years in various services such as Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Facebook has bought GIPHY for $4 million and has been trying to buy the service since 2015.

The Goofy service was launched in 2013 and was bought by Facebook at a time when it is facing strong scrutiny from regulators and state attorney generals.

The GIPHY team assured their users that they will maintain the availability of GIPHY.

Similarly, users will be able to upload their GIFs, while developers and GIFI’s API partners will also have access to the service’s vast library, including stickers and emojis.

Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri said, “Visual expression is so important in how we communicate, and GIPHY understands that like no other. Excited to bring their creativity and talent together with ours. Welcome to the family GIPHY!”

Instagram also wrote in a Tweet, “Welcome to the family! For those wondering, GIPHY will continue to operate its library and relationships with content and API partners, so if you use GIPHY on other platforms, nothing will change.”

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Welcome to the family! For those wondering, GIPHY will continue to operate its library and relationships with content and API partners, so if you use GIPHY on other platforms, nothing will change. https://t.co/DR1e3wCrn9 pic.twitter.com/U6XWAohtzU

— Instagram Comms (@InstagramComms) May 15, 2020