While how to pronounce the pseudo-word “GIF” is still widely debated, there’s no debate that a new jailbreak tweak is always welcome. GIFPaper, a recently-released tweak that lets you set any animated GIF image as your device wallpaper, is definitely one of the neatest additions to iOS that has come from the jailbreak community lately.
Make your wallpaper come to life with GIFPaper! GIFPaper allows you to set animated GIF images as your devices wallpaper. Set them on your home screen, lock screen, or both. Set any GIF wallpaper by holding down on the GIF in Safari, and then selecting “Set Wallpaper” from the menu that appears. You can also set a GIF wallpaper by typing in its URL on the GIFPaper settings page. GIFPaper is perfect for anyone who wants an exciting, animated wallpaper!
After installing the tweak, head over to the Settings app to configure it. You’ll find a new section called “GIFPaper” and within there you’ll find a variety of options to set your GIF wallpapers up however you’d like. First, there’s a kill switch as seen in the settings section for most tweaks. Below that, you’ll find a field to input the URL of the GIF you want to use, as well as a couple of options to configure how that GIF appears.
First, you’ll see “Wallpaper Mode” which gives you the three wallpaper modes you’ve come to know and love with default iOS wallpapers; pick from “Home Screen”, “Lock Screen”, or “Both” in this menu. Below that, you’ll see an option to set the “Scaling Mode” of the GIF, meaning how the GIF appears when activated. In “Scale to Fit” mode, the GIF will stay its normal size and fit within the width of the screen. “Scale to Fill” makes sure the GIF fits vertically, stretching it.
One of the coolest parts of this tweak, though, is how easy it is to set a GIF as your wallpaper. Within the Safari browser, you can navigate to any GIF on the internet and tap and hold to be presented with an option to “Set Wallpaper” as seen in the screenshots above. After tapping this option, you’ll be asked which wallpaper mode you’d like and then within a few seconds that GIF will be working as expected.
The tweak does a great job of doing what it’s supposed to do; after setting a GIF to be both my Home Screen and Lock Screen wallpaper, I found that unlocking the phone caused absolutely no graphical glitches at all. The process of downloading a GIF and getting everything set up is a breeze, and so far I haven’t noticed any dramatic decrease in battery life.
GIFPaper is available in the Cydia Store for $1.00, and isn’t currently compatible with iPad. Also of note, the developer says that GIFPaper “doesn’t play nice with the WinterBoard tweak.”
Do you like this tweak? Be sure to share your favorite GIFs below!
Here’s my favorite GIF for use with this tweak:
