Video is what GIFs want to be
A GIF stores whole 256-colour frames with 30-year-old compression; H.264 video stores full-colour differences between
frames. The same animation as MP4 is routinely 5–20× smaller and looks better. The big platforms know it — Twitter and
Reddit silently convert every uploaded GIF to video. Converting yourself first means you control the quality and keep
the small file for your own site, where <video autoplay loop muted playsinline> behaves exactly
like a GIF.
The conversion runs on FFmpeg in your browser — nothing is uploaded — and the output is written with even pixel
dimensions and faststart, the two details that decide whether a video plays everywhere or fails silently
in iMessage and old players. Going the other way, Video to GIF makes the paste-anywhere
version.