YouTube viewers hold back app updates to avoid GIF comments

One Reddit user, quoted by Dexerto, said: "Thank god I haven't updated the YouTube app, so GIFs don't work for me." ^[12] The rollout was confirmed on October 13 ^[1], and only a small number of viewers can post a GIF so far ^[2].

Dexerto reports that viewers skip what it calls benign app updates ^[11] and use third-party apps similar to an adblock ^[10]. Dexerto's own guess at the motive is split between envy of people who already have the feature and fatigue with GIF spam ^[18].

The pitch is familiar. Dexerto notes that replying with a GIF has become pretty standard on social platforms ^[17]. According to the company's announcement, every GIF comes from a library inside the app ^[5]. 9to5Google wrote that "The conversation around the ability to post GIFs under a video is louder than the feature itself." ^[16]

Access is not tied to Premium or any paywall, Dexerto says, and the slow rollout is the only gate ^[3]. Neither outlet reported how many users have the feature.

Uploaders want something different from viewers. They are asking whether they can turn GIF replies off for their own videos. "I would ideally like to turn them off from my channel for all videos," one said ^[14]. "Same, don't think they've added it," another agreed ^[15]. A third user said they "kinda hate" the GIFs and urged YouTube to limit them to Shorts ^[13]. The announcement already puts GIFs under both videos and Shorts, according to 9to5Google ^[4].

We think a team shipping a new reply format should release the channel-level off switch on the same day as the format. The tradeoff is one more setting to build and support, and that cost arrives before anyone knows how many channels will use it.

A two-by-two makes the check quick. The rows are the person who reads the new element and the person who owns the page it appears on. The columns are whether that person has an off switch on day one. An empty cell in the no-switch column tends to fill with a workaround, and the workaround surfaces in a subreddit or a support thread. On YouTube, by the Reddit reports Dexerto collected, readers are using an app freeze ^[11] and owners are asking for a setting that another user does not think exists ^[15].