Animated GIF support for user avatar and header

[ghost]

Would be nice to have, as Mastodon supports it.

[Vavassor]

I've thought about this before, but I've been concerned about how this would affect performance. Also, keeping in mind this issue mastodon/mastodon#441. If I did do it, I'd like to make sure I do it right.

Notes about implementation:

I know GIF's right now for media attachments are converted to .mp4. I'd expect avatars are the same, but I'm not sure. A VideoView could play them without controls and audio. The trouble would come with recycling ImageViews and VideoViews. RecyclerView is what's used for timelines, and it would be awkward to introduce this kind of heterogeneity, but it might work. You'd also have to handle the high case of like 15 VideoViews on screen, for example. Or quite a lot more if you're dealing with a tablet. Could easily just not animate if there's too many?

[ghost]

Perhaps only the avatar (along with the header) that is displayed on the profile above the bio could be animated for the time being?

Edit: Mastodon has now changed the way animated gifs are displayed, hovering the mouse cursor over an animated gif plays the animation (with the exception of the permalink/single thread view and in the bio area). This looks exactly like what I'm suggesting.

[jemus42]

How about making this simply optional? Like pinafore.social, which has a toggle for animated gif autoplay.

[charlag]

I think it works for avatars now? Can anyone confirm this?

[Tak]

It does work for avatars, and is controlled by a setting

[connyduck]

We should just also animate the headers when the setting is on.

[GilmardOliveira]