GIF Toaster, a new app for iPhone, lets you create GIFs by converting your photos, live photos, burst photos, and videos.
Read our review to see if GIF Toaster is worth downloading to create GIFs on your iPhone or iPad.
Home Page: The app opens with a permission to access your photos. The homepage has a very simple layout: the title bar organizes the content of your photo library into seven categories, the middle section displays the content of your chosen category (photos or videos) and the bottom section contains the following features: Break GIF, View GIF, GIF album and Settings.
Creating GIFs: Once you have selected the content (photo, videos etc) you want to turn into a GIF, the app directs you to GIF creation and editing section. In editing, the basic options vary for photos and videos but resolution, direction, effect, crossfade and Text banner options are the same for all.
Duration: Depending on the number of frames used in a GIF, the duration of converting your photos or videos varies. The smaller the number of frames, the lesser time it will take to convert.
Viewing and uploading: After conversion, you can select the ‘View in Fullscreen’ option which will direct you to the ‘Report’ section of the app, where you can set the speed of the frames, select the social media website where you want to upload your GIF or share it through a messaging app.
This section also provides different saving options and other information of the GIF.
Available Free options: In the free version of the app, there are limited number of options available for resolution and filters.
The app looks and functions like a free app, not much thought, and work has gone into designing its layout and it has rather irritatingly complex functionality. The continuously running ads at the bottom of the screen and constant pop-up ads are an irritant. GIFs which are 3 to 4 seconds long can be easily shared, but anything longer will either take too long or just would not upload. The new ‘Text Banner option’ does more bad than good as the banner will appear as “Welcome to GIF Toaster” in an unattrative manner at the bottom of your GIF. The only thing your can change in the text banner is the color of the text. Despite this, the app is good for beginners or for basic GIF creation at no cost.
The latest version of the app, 3.5, has a number of new features, improvements, and fixes. The new additions in the app are the introduction of a new Timelapse to GIF converter, a preview feature for all the converters and text banner position feature. The app’s reliability is also improved and some UI bugs have been fixed.
GIF toaster is available for free in the App Store for iPhone and iPad. You can make in-app purchase and upgrade the app to the pro-version for $1.99 which removes ads and unlocks all features.
