How to Add & View a GIF from Outlook Email

Aren’t GIFs the perfect addition to emails?

4 min. read

Updated onMay 16, 2024

updated onMay 16, 2024

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Key notes

Plain text emails have been the standard of email communications for a long time. Luckily, GIFs are slowly taking over and breaking the monotony of all the seriousness in a 10-paragraph email.

Perhaps you want to add that key ingredient to your emails, or someone has finally convinced you to use them. Whatever the case, most people don’t know how to insert a GIF in Outlook, so here’s the rundown on how to do it.

How do you insert a GIF into an email?

1. Use the drag-and-drop feature

2. Use the insert option

Some email clients, like Yahoo, have a GIF button with pre-downloaded static images in the library. You can search for GIF files without downloading them.

3. Use links to insert

We hope we’ve set you on the path to sending GIFs in your emails and then used it to liven up an interesting point in an email or an otherwise boring conversation. Outlook supports other formats that work with gifs, and we have a great guide on how toinsert HTML to Outlookemails.

How do I enable animated GIFs?

If you’re wondering if GIFs play in Outlook, the answer is yes. When you receive an animated GIF image, it will play automatically when you load your email. It will then loop three times, and the play button will appear if you want to replay it.

The caveat for this is that not all Outlook versions have GIF support.

Supported versions are as follows:

All older versions from 2019 and below will only display the first frame, which is basically a frozen moment of the GIF. This beats the whole point of sending a GIF if it won’t load on the other end or display as a static image.

You’re better offmarking all your emails as readif you were looking forward to getting some fun email content. The only workaround is to open the GIF in a browser.

Now, let’s look into how you can enable animated GIFs on your devices and email clients.

These settings allow you to play GIF format when you receive such files in your email for older versions of Outlook. Newer versions and Outlook Web already have this feature built-in, so you won’t need to perform this step.

If you’re already using GIFs in other tools like PowerPoint, there’s a quick way tosave gifs from PowerPointfor later use. But remember that GIFs are animations, alongside many others that are already native in Windows.

Using too many at once might be overwhelming so check out how toreact to Outlook messagesinstead. And if you find that GIFs slightly slow down your PC, you candisable animation effectsto leave more space for your awesome GIFs.

Incase your message fits better in a video, perhaps we may entice you toplay Microsoft Streams on Outlook. You can play videos directly without leaving your inbox.

Well, there you have it. In a few easy steps, you can also send GIFs in emails. Which email client do you find easier to send out GIFs? Let us know in the comment section below.

How to Add & View a GIF from Outlook Email#

How do you insert a GIF into an email?#

1. Use the drag-and-drop feature#

2. Use the insert option#

3. Use links to insert#

How do I enable animated GIFs?#