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Tenor GIF keyboard for Mac: what happened, and what works now

Tenor’s Mac app quietly disappeared years ago, and on June 30, 2026, Google switched off the Tenor API that GIF buttons all over the internet ran on. Here’s the short version, which apps moved where, and how to get a GIF into a Mac app today.

By Wells Riley, who makes Mojito·Updated October 4, 2026·Tested on macOS 27

Is there a Tenor GIF keyboard for Mac?

Not anymore. Tenor’s menu-bar app, which started life as GIF Keyboard in 2015, was last updated in 2018, never got an Apple silicon version, and had vanished from the Mac App Store by late 2022. Since June 30, 2026, no other app can search Tenor’s library either. On a Mac today you can browse tenor.com in a browser, use the GIF search built into Messages, Slack, or Discord, or install an app that searches another GIF library for you.

With Mojito, GIF search sits at your cursor in almost any app: type :::party and pick one. Results come from KLIPY, a GIF service co-founded by one of Tenor’s co-founders.

What happened to Tenor?

Tenor did two jobs. It ran a GIF website and keyboard apps of its own, and it sold a search API that other apps built their GIF buttons on. Google bought Tenor in 2018, kept the first job, and has now ended the second.

Google’s own Tenor FAQ says the content stays available in Google’s apps: tenor.com, Gboard, Tenor’s GIF Keyboard for iPhone and Android, Google Chat, and Google Messages. What ended is everyone else’s access. If a GIF button in some app went blank in July, that’s why.

Old Tenor links are a gray area. As of October 4, 2026, GIF files hosted on media.tenor.com still load, but Google hasn’t promised they’ll stay up. If there’s a Tenor GIF you can’t live without, save the file.

Which apps switched, and to what?

Apps that leaned on Tenor had nearly six months’ notice and moved to another GIF library. Where they landed, as of October 2026:

From Slack’s, Microsoft’s, and Signal’s own documentation, and press reports for Discord, WhatsApp, X, and Telegram, which haven’t published official notes. Apple doesn’t say which library powers #images in Messages.

How to get GIFs on a Mac now

There’s no single system-wide GIF keyboard on a Mac, so it comes down to where you want the GIF to appear. From least to most setup:

1. Use the app’s own GIF button. Messages has #images (the Apps button next to the message field), and Slack, Discord, and Teams each have a GIF picker. Nothing to install, but each one only works inside its own app.
2. Grab one from the web. tenor.com and giphy.com both search fine in Safari or Chrome. Save the GIF and drag the file into Mail, Notes, or anything else. Watch for .webp files; how to send GIFs on a Mac has the fix.
3. Add a menu-bar GIF app. Press a shortcut, search, then drag or paste the GIF into whatever you’re writing. This is the closest thing to the old Tenor app.
4. Search from a launcher. If you already use Raycast, its free GIF Search extension can pull from GIPHY or KLIPY.
5. Search at your cursor. Inline pickers watch what you type and open GIF search right where you are, the way a phone keyboard does.

Prices and providers checked October 4, 2026, on each app’s own site or App Store page. Rocket Pro also stores GIFs, but it doesn’t search an online library.

Search GIFs at your cursor with Mojito

Type three colons and a word, like :::party, and a panel of KLIPY results opens at your cursor. Arrow to the one you want and press Return. Mojito pastes the actual .gif file, not a still or a link, so it animates in Mail, Notes, Slack, and Discord alike.

Two details worth knowing. GIF search works even in apps where Mojito otherwise steps aside, like Slack and Discord, so you can use one habit everywhere (you can switch that off). And it’s the only time anything you type leaves your Mac: the words after ::: go to KLIPY, along with your country so results suit where you are, and nothing that ties a search to you.

Tenor questions