Google kills Tenor GIF API, forcing changes at X, Discord, and more

“As part of an ongoing effort to focus resources on enhancing our core products, we’ve made the decision to sunset the Tenor API on June 30, 2026,” the company explained.

Well, not anymore.

Credit: Google

To be clear, Tenor still exists. You can go to the Tenor website to search for GIFs, and Google’s apps will still source animated images from Tenor (for now). You may not have realized if you were using Tenor through Twitter or Discord, but any favorite GIFs you’ve saved there are gone. Most users didn’t understand easy GIF access was provided by a third-party API and have directed their resulting anger at the platforms themselves.

Websites that relied on Tenor have been shifting to alternatives over the last several weeks, so you can still get your GIF fix without tedious manual uploading. X’s Nikita Bier confirmed on June 20 that the site had migrated away from Tenor. Discord, meanwhile, has tested both Giphy and Klipy, but it looks like most users are seeing Klipy integration now. WhatsApp and Bluesky also appear to be moving to Klipy integration for GIFs.

Users of these websites will see a different selection of GIFs going forward, and not everyone is happy with the selection. Things could improve as more people use Tenor alternatives. Frank Nawabi, who founded Tenor and sold it to Google, is one of the folks behind Klipy. The startup recently raised $3.8 million in funding, and one of the investors was, you guessed it, Google.