Google discontinues Tenor GIF API, impacting X, Discord, and others
▼ Summary
– Google has discontinued the Tenor API as of June 30, ending its ability to serve GIFs to platforms like X/Twitter and Discord.
– Tenor, a searchable GIF database, was acquired by Google in 2018 and continued operating largely unchanged until the shutdown.
– The API was integrated into Google products such as Gboard and Google Messages, and allowed other platforms to help users find and share GIFs.
– Google announced the wind-down in January, stopped accepting new integrations, and cited a need to focus resources as the reason.
– The likely real reason for the shutdown was that Tenor was free and Google saw no way to profit from the GIF API.
Google has long been notorious for shelving its own services, and the company just added another name to that infamous list. As of today, the Tenor GIF API has been officially discontinued. While the name “Tenor” might not ring a bell for most people, its impact has been widespread. This searchable database of animated images powered GIF-sharing features on major platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Discord, and many others. Now, the API only serves Google’s own products, leaving third-party integrations in the cold.
Tenor didn’t start out as a Google property. It was an independent startup before Google acquired it back in 2018. For years afterward, the service ran with minimal changes, allowing outside apps and websites to tap into its vast library of GIFs. Google itself used Tenor inside products like Gboard and Google Messages, but the real value lay in its open API, which gave other platforms a seamless way to let users search and share animated clips. In that sense, it competed directly with services like Giphy and Klipy.
The writing has been on the wall since January, when Google announced it would begin phasing out third-party API access. New integrations were banned immediately, and the final cutoff date was set for June 30. That day has now arrived. Google, a corporate behemoth with nearly 200,000 employees and over $130 billion in profit last year, explained the move as a matter of resource focus. The more likely reason, however, is simpler: the Tenor API was free, and Google couldn’t find a viable path to monetize a GIF service. So, another product gets the axe, and the internet’s virtual graveyard grows a little larger.
(Source: Ars Technica)
