One-Minute Review: JibJab Messages Is an Awesome GIF Maker

by Unknown 04:30 0 comments

Question: What’s the quickest way to star in your own ridiculous Internet meme? Answer: JibJab Messages, which—despite the name—is not yet another messaging app.

Fresh from the puckish Internet animation shop that bears its name, the app’s sole purpose is to generate hilarious animated GIFs featuring your face, which you then share to Facebook, Twitter, email or text message (including Apple’s iMessage).

WSJ’s Wilson Rothman in a JibJab message

If you’re familiar with the folks at JibJab, you already have an idea of what the GIFs will look like: a human face floating in a short film of cartoonish craziness. They delight and annoy with equal success, but if you’re in the GIF loving camp, JibJab Messages is totally worth a download. (For iOS users, that is. No Android version yet.)

WSJ’s Nathan Olivarez-Giles in a JibJab message.

After launching the app, log in with your Facebook, Twitter or Google+ credentials. (Sorry, there’s no other way in.)
The next step is to take a selfie. The app lets you zoom and rotate it so that it fits snugly into the template—for best results, take time to do this. Once you’re set, JibJab places the image into more than 250 filters: your face on a dancing hot dog, a gyrating saxophone player, a head-banging T. Rex, and so on. You can keep adding selfies to your library, one for each of your varied moods.

JibJab Messages for iOS

Once you see a GIF you like, tap it, add text and Instagram-like filters if you like, then share it or just save it to your phone. If you want it bigger, set image quality to “high” in the Settings menu.

The app download and the first 10 GIFs you share or save are free. But after that, JibJab will charge you 99 cents for 10 GIFs. If you subscribe, you can make unlimited GIFs for 99 cents a month—and perhaps lose a bunch of friends in the process.