YouTube, the video-sharing website headquartered in San Bruno, California, now has a Graphics Interchange Format file (GIF) creator.

When sharing a YouTube video, users can now select a 'GIF' option which allows users to set a start-and-end point on the video, add text and create a gif of up to six seconds in length.

So, is there a catch? Yes. Currently, the only videos to feature the gif option are ones found on the PBS Ideas Channel. The newly-added feature allows you to grab a portion of the video you are watching and turn it into a looping silent mini-clip saved as GIF

To begin with, you need to be signed in to your YouTube account and then find a video you wish to convert into GIF and then click on 'Share.' Besides the well-known 'Embeded' and 'Email' options, you would see 'GIF' too. You are shown sliders that you can move through the video to choose the clip you want to loop, not only that, you can even add your own text at the top and bottom.

Just like you embed a full video, the converted GIF too can be embedded or you can opt to email or share it on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Reddit. One of the most popular options for gif-makers out there was GifYouTube - a site that adds the term 'GIF' before a YouTube URL and by the looks of it, the built-in feature spotted by blogger and former Kickstarter CTO Andy Baio, could replace websites that create GIFs from YouTube videos, although not just yet. The tool is not yet enabled on every YouTube video and it works on PBS Idea Channel videos.

Although the launch came this week, YouTube had officially announced the idea in a November "creator preview" demo.

With the most impressive feature letting users add text (in the popular Impact font)to the top and bottom of the output GIF, the new functionality is simple and limited. Attributes like animation speed and size can't be tweaked and also users can't seek through a video and create a GIF out of multiple scenes; their ideal GIF will need to contain footage from a single, concurrent part.
 

A YouTube representative did not have answers about other possible output formats such as the recent GIFV format which was introduced by imgur this October. There were no details regarding when we can expect a wider rollout of the GIF output feature too. At the moment, the feature seems to be tied to creators enabling it and interested YouTube channel operators can sign up for Google's GIF Beta sign-up.