AstroGif

There is a lot that can be said with an animated GIF, but we can never seem to find the right ones when we really need them. A Google search can take a while, ruining the perfect opportunity for a relevant reaction GIF.

Thankfully, AstroGif is here to help you. A relatively simple cross-platform app, it enables you to perform quick searches on Giphy from your desktop, and then copy GIFs to the clipboard in a few easy steps.

When you need to reply with a suitable GIF, time is of the essence. You can’t afford to fire up your web browser and perform a Google search, but AstroGif speeds up the process significantly.

Once you have brought up the main window, you can type any relevant keyword, and a matching animation from Giphy will be displayed almost instantly. If you are not happy with the first result, you can press the down arrow key to cycle through the rest of them.

AstroGif can be displayed at any time using a customizable global shortcut, as well as by clicking its system tray icon. Since the app runs quietly in the background when not needed, it will not get in your way.

After finding the right GIF, you only need to press Enter to have the application copy its URL to the clipboard. Alternatively, you can configure the program to copy the URL as Markdown.

The UI’s minimalistic design is well suited for an application of this type, but it is a shame that the main window cannot be moved, as it is always displayed in the center of your screen.

By default, the app embeds GIFs when previewing, but it is also possible to embed an MP4 version of the image, which will likely be quicker to load. An advantage of embedding the GIF is that you can drag it directly from the main window to your desktop if you want to save it locally.

On the whole, AstroGif is a cool app for those who like to communicate with others using animated GIFs. It makes it much easier to find and share the right ones, and it never gets in your way.