Effortless New Tool Allows You To ‘GIF YouTube’ Videos

The online video masses aren’t strangers to the idea of animated GIFs, as many like to create their own from their favorite videos. (Don’t believe me? Just search for Tyler Oakley, Grace Helbig, Frankenstein, MD, or really any popular YouTuber or online video program on Tumblr.) Now, that task is easier than ever with a new tool called GIF YouTube.

According to TechCrunch, the service was ceated as a side project by a team from messaging app Glyphic, and allows you to quickly grab shots from YouTube videos and convert them into animated GIFs. Once you’ve loaded a video you like, all you do is add the word gif after the “www.” portion and before “youtube.com.” A sample URL would look something like www.gifyoutube.com/yourvideo.

While other GIF-making services exist, this one’s major benefit is how simple it is to use. In addition to the easy-to-remember URL change, all you have to deal with is setting a start point, duration, and title for your GIF. Clicking “create gif” provides you a clean, animated GIF (without a watermark or logo) for you to share wherever you want. Beginning GIF-makers will find it a perfect place to start, while users who want to have more options for editing and converting videos (like frame-by-frame control, or adding captions) may need to look elsewhere.

But that may have to happen anyway. GIF YouTube isn’t approved or supported by YouTube, and if they decide to crack down on the use of their trademarked name in the service’s title, it could disappear. If that happens, you can always revert back to one of the GIF-making classics. Try GIF Brewery, Make a Gif, GIFMaker.me, or Imgflip’s GIF maker.