Your iOS GIF Keyboard Is Finally Here, Thanks To Riffsy

Since the launch of iOS 8 last week, there’s been a huge run on custom keyboards in the App Store. That includes the likes of Swype, Fleksy and SwiftKey, all of which have been designed to help users more quickly type and share what they are thinking.

But what if they want to share what they are feeling? For that, there’s no better tool than the animated GIF. And now, thanks to a company called Riffsy, you can quickly and easily search for, discover and share a wide variety of animated GIFs directly from your keyboard.

Arriving today on iOS, Riffsy GIF Keyboard can be installed alongside all your other keyboards to send out funny animated GIFs via SMS, Twitter, Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp in the same way you would send a text.

The app leverages a collection of millions of GIFs that the company’s users have created or shared with the Riffsy Creator app over the past year. And because those GIFs are usually tagged and identified with specific hashtags like #HAPPY, #EXCITED, or #LOL, it’s easy to find an image that suits your needs.

When you first enter the keyboard, it highlights a number of different hashtags that will fit most occasions. You click through to view images under each description, find the one you want, and tap on it. Once that’s done, you’ll have the option of copying the GIF, copying a video, grabbing a link to the GIF, or saving it to your camera roll.

To send as an SMS, you simply copy the GIF, click on the text entry field, choose to paste the image, click send and away it goes. You’ve now brought a smile to the face of whomever you’re texting with.

Users can browse all the various hashtags that are pre-populated on the keyboard’s home screen, view those that are trending, or search for specific images. The keyboard also keeps track of all the GIFs you send and re-send, making them readily accessible in a favorites tab.

In addition to choosing from GIFs that Riffsy users have collected over the past year, you can also add your own, thanks to the wonders of iOS 8’s new app extensions. By enabling the GIF keyboard extension in Safari, users can grab animated GIFs from Reddit, BuzzFeed, Imgur or wherever they may find them and easily add them to their collection.

I’ve been using a beta version of the app for several weeks now, and can easily say it’s one of the best things that’s ever happened to my SMS conversations with friends. Now that iOS 8 is out and they can download the GIF Keyboard themselves, I can’t wait to never have to enter text to communicate with them ever again.

Build Your Own Awesome Personal 3D Avatar with Avatara

Do you use social networks and want to build your own awesome 3D avatar? Maybe you want to send someone a cute cuddly image of yourself (kind of)? Or maybe you have your own ideas of what you would do with an Avatar… Well look no further than Avatara which I discovered from the MakeUseOf directory . You can create 3d avatars out of pre-set up templates or create your own from scratch. To start, visit Avatara’s homepage . You will see this screen: Click Get Started to umm, get started! That will take you to this screen: You see that you can build your own Avatar using an uploaded head shot like the Obama one above (just an example, guys). Or roll with one of their awesome avatars. I chose to start with a blank avatar by clicking Start with a blank avatar at the bottom of the screen. That takes you to here: I clicked on the filter at the top and told it to filter out everything but male characters and then I saw this: I rolled with Buck and continued. You need to click Select...

Fun Tools to Translate Your Name into Japanese Calligraphy

Japanese calligraphy is an artistic writing style of the Japanese language. Its Chinese origins can be traced back to the twenty-eighth century BCE. Calligraphy found its way into Japanese culture in 600 CE and is known as the karayo tradition. For Westerners, calligraphy is forever fascinating. However, it takes years to learn how to properly draw the signs. Two basic principles must be known to understand Japanese writing: there are different writing styles and different alphabets. Kaisho for example, is a writing style most commonly used in print media. Tensho on the other hand is used in signatures. Other writing styles are Reisho, Gyosho and Sousho. The alphabets include Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana. Katakana is used for writing foreign words. It can also serve to highlight words, in analogy to capital letters as we know them from the Roman / Latin alphabet (Romaji in Japanese). Each Kanji character has a meaning of its own, while Hiragana or Katakana characters merely repres...

Boom, the startup that wants to build supersonic planes, just signed a massive deal with Virgin

Have you heard about Boom? Boom is a relatively new startup that’s aiming to build something pretty crazy. They’re not building an app… or a social network… or even some new gadget for the Kickstarter crowd. Boom wants to build planes. Really, really, really fast planes. Specifically, they’re trying to design and build a supersonic passenger plane that goes 2.2x the speed of sound. If all goes to plan, they’ll be able to shuttle people from New York to London in 3.5 hours, and SF to Tokyo in 4.5. Sound crazy? I wouldn’t disagree. It’s worth noting that the company is in the very early days for something as intensive, massive, and hugely expensive as designing and producing a passenger aircraft. They’re still working on their first prototype, and hope to fly it by late next year. But it’s also worth noting that the team behind the plane has some serious talent in its blood: the company’s 11 employees have collectively contributed to over 30 aircrafts — having worked on thin...

Kiran Upadhyay

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