Why doesn't whatsapp play all gifs?

Question

When I create a gif, which works fine in Chrome, I cannot make it play in WhatsApp. It just shows a static image.

To give an example, I am using lua with the lua-gd package to draw gifs. Even the example code given, which gives a nice gif of an enlarging circle, doesn't play on WhatsApp. Note that my version of WhatsApp can view gifs just fine (for example those sent via web WhatsApp using Giphy gifs).

Here is the gif:

This is generated by the following example code by lua-gd:

require "gd"

im = gd.createPalette(120, 120)
assert(im)

black = im:colorAllocate(0, 0, 0)
blue = {}
for i = 1, 20 do
  blue[i] = im:colorAllocate(0, 0, 120+6*i)
end

fp = io.open("out.gif", "w")
assert(fp, "Failed to open file for writting")

fp:write(im:gifAnimBeginStr(true, 0))

for i = 1, 20 do
  tim = gd.createPalette(120, 120)
  tim:paletteCopy(im)
  tim:arc(60, 60, 6*i, 6*i, 0, 360, blue[21-i])
  fp:write(tim:gifAnimAddStr(false, 0, 0, 5, gd.DISPOSAL_NONE))
end

fp:write(gd.gifAnimEndStr())
fp:close()

Answer 1

Most of the time it happens while we share gif through computer. Try to save created GIF file in your mobile device and share direct from mobile app. It worked for me every time.

Answer 2

WhatsApp doesn't support sending GIFs directly, but I just found a workaround.

Send it as a video, open it on your phone, share it and select GIF there (in the top right corner on Android).

Answer 3

Managed to solved it this way:

1. Got the GIF in my computer

2. The GIF was sent to myself as a file (not a photo), using WhatsApp web

3. Downloaded & opened it in the phone.

Voilà!