And you can see my haaaaaaaands typing
You can see me typing text
I said I’m terrifiiiiiiiiiiied of using Giphy
But know that I must pass this jest
So, I’ll use this Slackbot
I love Giphy, and I hate it, too. Because while its the largest repository of GIFs on the internet (lots of people call it Google for GIFs), trying to make a joke or otherwise illustrate something in a Slack conversation using the /giphy command is like rolling dice to determine whether or not your head gets guillotined off.
When you use /giphy with any keywords, Giphy will “translate” your text to a GIF (they’ll search their database and spit out a random GIF with a descriptive tag that matches your search query). Thing is, in many cases, the translator lacks context so it produces rather…unexpected results. I’m sure you can imagine how jokes get sent flying off the rails.
Like THIS.
Or THIS
I found this Slackbot called What da GIF, by Leke Togun and Seun Martins, Software developers at Andela, and it works pretty simply. If you find a pic or GIF you like on the internets, you can capture it with What da GIF, save it with a keyword, and use that keyword during your conversations.
Me, capturing a GIF. All you need to do is type /dagif then the [url] then the [keyword]:
Saving a GIF.
Me, using it in a convo. You can call it up by typing /dagif followed by the [keyword]:
Using it in a conversation.
( ._.)
(._. )
Now that I think about it, conversations will get pretty predictable if I spit out the same GIF or meme in response to similar situations, and that’s where Giphy shines through. I daresay there are times when Giphy’s inappropriate GIFs make #general channel conversations that much more interesting. But hey, that’s why there’s no limit on the number of GIF bots you can install in Slack. Best of both worlds, ey?
Check out What Da GIF.
Update Aug 8, 2016 8:58am: Article updated to show the bot was built by both Leke Togun and Seun Martins, and not just Leke Togun as was earlier implied.
