YouTube gets a built-in gif maker

The feature that launched a thousand reaction images

(Getty)

YouTube has added an easy-to-use tool for creating gifs from its videos.

The tool is accessed by clicking the ‘share’ button on a video — bringing up a timeline of the video where you can adjust what parts of the video you’d like to appear in the gif. They can be a maximum of five seconds long, and text can be added to the top and bottom.

When the gif is created, YouTube creates a handy link to the picture and a code to embed it on websites.

The feature is being gradually rolled out on a by-video basis, and only some accounts, such as the PBS Idea Channel seem to have the option enabled. Many of the internet’s most popular videos (Gangnam Style included) don’t yet have the option.

It’s unclear whether it will be rolled out to all videos, or if users will get the option of adding the tool to videos themselves.