The internet of two decades ago was a library of text. Its search engines were built for that world, designed to navigate a web of words. But the internet evolved. It exploded into a vibrant, visual, and visceral ecosystem of social media, video, entertainment, and culture—all driven by a new generation of creators for a new global audience. In this dynamic digital landscape, the static nature of text was no longer enough.
This is where the GIF comes in. More than a simple image, a GIF adds the crucial dimensions of time and expression, making it a far richer format for capturing the world around us.
The Challenge: A Web Without Feeling
Recognizing this shift, the teams at GIPHY and Affectiva began a conversation centered on a fundamental problem: the lack of genuine feeling and emotion in online communication. How could they bring the human element back to the internet?
GIPHY’s answer was to build an entirely new type of search engine—one that revolves around expressive, searchable content that goes far beyond text. Their platform organizes the world’s GIFs, making them discoverable for everyone. Through a powerful ecosystem of partners, artists, and user creation tools, GIPHY curates the best content and makes it available everywhere. But with millions of expressions flowing into their library, a new challenge emerged: how do you efficiently categorize a feeling?
The Solution: Searching for Emotion with AI
To solve this, GIPHY turned to Affectiva’s Emotion AI SDK to explore an automated, scalable way to tag GIFs with specific emotions and reactions. As a platform dedicated to online expression, GIPHY found a perfect partner in Affectiva to help efficiently catalogue their massive library by sentiment. This collaboration allowed GIPHY to instantly identify and tag the nuanced emotions in each GIF, from joy and laughter to surprise and sarcasm, transforming a monumental manual task into an efficient, automated process.
The power of this integration was showcased during real-time events, such as the presidential elections. Affectiva’s technology helped find the perfect reaction GIFs on the fly and was even used to provide commentary on the emotional state of the candidates, bringing a new layer of insight and engagement to live commentary.
A Partnership Built on Empathy
The success of the collaboration was rooted in a shared vision for a more human-centric technology.
“Affectiva has a great empathetic (obviously) staff. I would go talk to them just for the conversation. There is a lack of great people bringing life back to technology; we need fellow developers to help make it happen.”
— Alex Chung, Founder & CEO of GIPHY
The Future of Expression
GIPHY is dedicated to restoring emotion and authentic expression to our digital lives. This mission is about more than just messaging; it’s about fundamentally changing how we communicate. GIFs are only the beginning. Later this year, GIPHY will explore all the formats that can capture more of what makes us human, ensuring the future of the internet is not only searchable but also deeply felt.
