GIFs are a great medium for sharing reactions or expressions through a number of different applications. You can send a GIF through an email, WhatsApp, Twitter and the list goes on. With so many cool uses for GIFs, I’ve often wondered, can a GIF have sound? Let’s find out!
A GIF cannot have sound because the file extension does not support sound. A .gif file extension contains image data that can be animated, but no sound can be embedded.
How can I embed sound in a GIF?
Because the native GIF format doesn’t support sound, you have a two alternatives for hearing sounds in your GIF.
- Convert a GIF into an .mp4 (or any other video format) and include sound on your video timeline.
- Include a GIF on an HTML website and embed HTML5 audio on the page.
Here are two examples of how you can have GIFs with sound:
.mp4 file that appears to be a GIF and has sound. Here’s an example.
An iframe with a GIF and an HTML element playing audio.