The term “selfie” has been in use for almost two decades now, and everyone is familiar with what selfies are.

But there’s more to selfies than the basic frontcam still image. Many platforms, like Discord and Facebook, for example support GIF profile pictures, perfect for a moving selfie. To put some more of your own personality in your profile, I recommend making selfie GIFs for your profiles – here’s how to do it online:

  1. Record your selfie clip
  2. Upload your selfie clip to the Kapwing Studio
  3. Export and download as a GIF

Step 1: Record Your Selfie Clip

The first thing you should do is take a short video or Live Photo to use as your selfie GIF. This can be done in a few different ways. If you’re accustomed to taking selfies using your phone’s camera app, just take a quick clip there and don’t bother editing it yet – you can do that in the next step.

A screenshot from the Kapwing mobile Studio, showing how to take photos and videos using your phone camera.
You can upload videos straight from your camera to the Kapwing Studio.

For the simplest process, open your browser, go to Kapwing.com, and click “Start Editing” to enter the Kapwing Studio. Here, choose the Upload button and choose “Take Photo or Video.” Now, give Kapwing access to your camera and make sure you’re using your front camera and you’ve chosen “Video.” Record a short selfie clip and upload it to the Studio directly.

Step 2: Upload Your Selfie Clip to the Kapwing Studio

If you took your selfie video using your camera app, you’ll need to upload it to the Kapwing Studio in order to convert it to a GIF. Open your browser, go to Kapwing.com, and click “Start Editing” to enter the Studio. Select the Upload button and browse through your camera roll. Select the video you want to convert to a GIF and give Kapwing a few seconds to upload it to the Studio.

A screenshot from the mobile Kapwing Studio, showing how to upload videos from the camera roll.
Upload videos straight to the Studio from your camera roll. 

If you recorded your clip using Kapwing, you’re all set – no more uploads needed!

Step 3: Export and Download as a GIF

Once your selfie clip is uploaded to the Studio, you can make any edits you need. The first thing you’ll probably want to do is trim your clip to the section you want to use as a selfie GIF. Select your video layer, choose “Edit Video,” then select the Trim tool. Now you can move the sliders to trim your video to the part you want to use in your GIF. Back in the Studio, you can choose “Adjust” to edit your video’s brightness, saturation, contrast, and blur to fine-tune how it looks.

Screenshots from the mobile Kapwing Studio, demonstrating how to trim a video and export it as a GIF.
Trim you video and export it as a GIF file. 

When your selfie clip looks just the way you want, scroll all the way to the right in the upper toolbar and hit Settings. Here, change your clip’s Output File to GIF. Exit the Settings window and tap the red Export button to start processing your GIF. For short selfie GIFs, this should take less than a minute. Once your file is finished processing, select the Download button to save it directly to your device.

A screen recording from the Kapwing final video screen, showing how to download a GIF to a mobile device.
Download your selfie GIF straight to your photos app. 

I hope this article helps you make your selfies move! Once you’ve created your selfie GIF, check out other video editing content at our YouTube channel Kapwing App. And while you’re here, read through some related articles on GIFs and short video:

• How to Record GIFs Directly on Your Phone
• How to Make GIF Stickers for IG Stories
• How to Make High Quality GIFs Online
• How to Make a GIF From YouTube