Life

Here's What To Do If Snapchat’s GIF Sticker Update Doesn’t Seem To Work For You Yet

by Kaitlyn Wylde
Snap Inc.

By now, you're probably a total pro at taking totally artsy Snapchats to curate your stories with — but now, you can finally take them to the next level. On Tuesday, Snapchat announced that through a partnership with GIPHY, GIF stickers would now be available for users to add to their snaps in the Sticker Picker — and you can be sure with a selection from GIPHY, there's truly a GIF for any and all of your Snap-decorating needs. But, though the update is officially rolling out now, if you haven't been able to access the GIF stickers yet and are on the app right now scratching your head and asking yourself why you can't add GIF stickers on Snapchat, don't worry: There are some steps you can take.

For everyone else — and you, when it's available — the update allows users to add animated little stickers to Snapchat pictures and videos, making them infinitely more interesting to look at. I mean seriously, decorating a Snap with GIF stickers is just as fun as doing an arts and crafts project. You'll find yourself spending 20 minutes just decorating one image and wanting to save it to your Memories to keep it forever, like putting a piece of art on the refrigerator for everyone to admire.

While the basic stickers have been around for a while, the animated aspect of the GIF stickers make the experience of sending a Snap a lot more artful. Each Snap is like a fun little project, especially because everything is so customizable. With the new GIF stickers you can change their size, turn them around and pin them to moving images to create an augmented reality look. I realize that it might sound like a small change, but if you're not already familiar with GIPHY stickers from Instagram stories, you're going to quickly fall in love with them on Snapchat. They really do make a huge difference — quite literally making your static content, totally kinetic. GIPHY stickers make your content feel more interactive, more personalized and strangely more human, despite how very techie it all is.

Alas, if you're not seeing the update on your app, you're probably feeling pretty left out right now. But fret not, the update will be available for everyone, Snapchat just likes to roll things out slowly to minimize congestion and technological issues. Imagine if everyone was trying to use the same feature at the same time; it would be tech bug city. It's always best for these new features trickle out to a few groups of people at a time. That way, if there are any issues, Snapchat can fix them before the next roll out. So by the time the update makes its way to your phone, preliminary issues have likely already been ironed out, and you'll be able to enjoy the update working to the best of its ability. Here's how to tell if you have the update:

Check Your Stickers Tab

Snapchat

You'll know whether you have the update or not if you've captured an image or movie and tapped the sticker icon on the upper right hand corner and see a GIPHY tab. If you don't see a GIPHY tab, the update has not yet been rolled out to you. This could be because you need to update, or because it's just still on its way.

Head To The App Store

If you don't see the GIPHY tab, head to the App Store and check for updates. Make sure your Snapchat is running on the latest version. Once you're up-to-date, reboot the app and see if the GIPHY header shows up in your Stickers folder.

Log In & Out

If it's still not there, you can try to log in and out of the app. If that still doesn't do the trick, it means your app simply hasn't received the data for the update yet. Just hang in there, it could be hours, or it could be days, but you'll definitely have the update soon. Snapchat most certainly did not forget about you. You'll be GIF-ing it up in no time!