Google Has Shut Down the Tenor API: GIF Pickers on Discord, WhatsApp, X, and Bluesky Are Broken

According to Google’s official support documentationthe Tenor API has been sunset as of June 30, 2026. As part of an ongoing effort to focus resources on enhancing core products, Google made the decision to shut down the Tenor API. All API and Ads Distribution Agreements with Tenor were terminated on June 30, and current integrations were fully decommissioned as of that date.

Tenor.com and all Google-owned product integrations (Gboard, Google Chat, Google Messages, and the dedicated Android and iOS Tenor GIF Keyboard apps) are unaffected. The disruption is entirely on the third-party side, where every app or platform that built its GIF search functionality on Tenor’s API has either had to migrate to an alternative, build its own solution, or break.

What Google Acquired and What It’s Keeping

Google acquired Tenor in 2018, paying an undisclosed amount to bring one of the web’s largest GIF search libraries in-house. Tenor was, alongside Giphy, one of the two dominant GIF search providers for third-party platforms, offering a keyword-searchable database of GIFs that apps could integrate through a standard API call without hosting the content themselves.

The acquisition gave Google a powerful GIF library for its own products, and third-party access continued through the Tenor API for the years following. The January 2026 decision to stop accepting new API sign-ups was the first visible signal that Google was winding down the third-party program. The June 30 cutoff is the end of that wind-down.

What remains is that Tenor.com is still a fully functioning GIF search website. The Tenor GIF Keyboard app on Android and iOS still works. Gboard, the Google keyboard installed on hundreds of millions of Android devices, still has full Tenor GIF search. Google Chat and Google Messages still have Tenor integration. Google is keeping the library for its own ecosystem while removing external access to it.

Which Platforms Are Affected by Tenor API Shutdown

The most widely used platforms that relied on Tenor’s API are now dealing with the consequences.

Twitter/X Head of Product Nikita Bier confirmed on the platform that Twitter/X has migrated its GIF picker away from Tenor. This is why users noticed their “recently used” GIF section was purged, the migration to a new provider reset that history, and why some users are seeing fewer GIFs available in the picker immediately after the switch. The migration was in progress when the API shut down, meaning the transition may still be stabilizing.

Discord is also affected, though the company has not made a public statement about its migration path. Discord’s GIF picker, which many users rely on for reaction GIFs in servers and direct messages, draws from Tenor’s library. Users on Discord have been reporting reduced GIF availability and search inconsistencies.

WhatsApp’s GIF search function, accessible through the attachment menu in conversations, also relied on Tenor. The same disruption pattern applies, where GIF search may return fewer results, load more slowly, or break entirely depending on whether WhatsApp has completed a migration to an alternative library.

Bluesky, the decentralized social platform, is similarly affected. Bluesky’s GIF picker will need to source its library elsewhere.

What the Alternatives Are

The two most likely replacement candidates for platforms that need to migrate are Giphy and Stipop. Giphy is the obvious choice; it is Tenor’s most direct competitor and has maintained its own third-party API. However, Giphy has had a complicated history: Meta acquired Giphy in 2020, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority ordered its sale in 2022, and Giphy was subsequently sold to Shutterstock in 2023. Its API availability and pricing terms have shifted during those ownership transitions.

Stipop is a smaller alternative focused on the app and messaging developer market, offering sticker and GIF integration through a developer-friendly API. Some platforms in the developer community have pointed to it as a migration path.

For platforms large enough to justify the investment, building a proprietary GIF library or striking direct licensing deals with GIF creators is a third option that is more expensive and complex but not dependent on a third-party provider that could change its terms again.

Why Google Made This Call

The phrasing in Google’s support documentation, “focus resources on enhancing our core products,” is the standard corporate language for deprioritizing something that is not generating strategic value. The Tenor API was a service Google provided to third parties, largely inherited from the acquisition. Maintaining it required ongoing infrastructure, support, and development resources that Google has clearly decided are better allocated elsewhere.

This follows a pattern that Google has repeated across several acquired products and developer services by integrating the value into Google’s own ecosystem and deprecating the external access. Reader, Stadia, and now Tenor API are all products where Google chose to capture the internal value while cutting off the third-party dependency.

The January decision to stop accepting new API sign-ups gave developers five months of notice before the final shutdown, a reasonable window for large platforms, though smaller developers with Tenor integrations may have been caught off guard.

What to Do If You Need GIFs Right Now

For users: if GIF search is broken in your preferred app, the issue is on the platform’s end. Restarting the app or clearing cache will not fix it. The platform needs to migrate to a new GIF provider, and several already have or are in the process of doing so. Tenor.com remains fully functional if you need to search for a specific GIF and share it as a link.

For developers currently using the Tenor API, the shutdown is in effect as of today. Integrations will no longer return results. Migration to Giphy’s developer API or an alternative provider is the immediate path forward.

What to Watch Next

Twitter/X’s GIF picker migration is ongoing, and the experience may continue to change in the coming days as the new provider integration stabilizes. Discord has not publicly confirmed its migration plan; users on the platform may continue to see inconsistencies until the company ships a replacement integration. Bluesky’s transparent engineering approach may result in a public post about their alternative; it is worth following their @bsky.social engineering account for updates.