GIFs in Emails - Do They Work Well in Sugar Market? (EMB 2.0)

Question

Good Day, 
 We've been working in Sugar Market under the assumption that GIFs generally are not recommended, like videos. But, recently while testing we did get some gifs working in previews and test emails (sent to Outlook desktop app). I know the documentation mentions that not all email clients support gifs. 
 Anyone using gifs presently? Any idea which email clients don't support gifs? 
 Just curious if it's something people avoid or if anyone is using it successfully. 
 Cheers, 
 Ed

Ed Finn · Accepted Answer

Hi Ed Finn! 
 I understand that this question is more suited for crowd-sourcing, I thought I'd share some of my go-to sources for finding information on this topic. 
 One of our partners, Litmus, has an article discussing which email clients typically support GIFs. You can find it here: Litmus Article on Animated GIFs in Email . 
 Over the years, it seems that more and more email clients are starting to support GIFs. However, I've encountered situations where an email client claims to support GIFs, but it doesn't work due to various reasons such as their operating system or versioning. Therefore, I'd recommend doing additional online research to get a better understanding of the support landscape. Personally, I'm not entirely confident that even if a client lists GIF support, it will work seamlessly due to the wide variety email clients and configurations. 
 On a related note, we often receive inquiries about whether videos are supported in emails. Currently, very few, if any, clients support videos in email. As a workaround, we typically suggest using a screenshot of the video thumbnail with a 'play' button in the middle. This image can then be made clickable to the video link. This way, the client can see that it's a video and is more inclined to click it. Similarly, when including GIFs, it's essential to consider what the experience will be for clients that do not support GIFs, such as what still frame they will see by default. 
 I hope this information proves helpful! I'm also interested in hearing about the experiences and practices of other clients. 
 Regards, 
 Michael North Sr. Technical Support Manager