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How to Enable and Add GIFs to Microsoft Teams (Fix Giphy Disabled)
Teams

How to Enable and Add GIFs to Microsoft Teams (Fix Giphy Disabled)

15 January 2021 By Hal Sclater

Short answer: to add a GIF to a Teams chat, open GIPHY, find the GIF you want, right-click it and choose Copy image, then paste it into the chat with Ctrl+V. This works even when an administrator has turned the GIF button off.

Administrators can disable the GIF button in Microsoft Teams, but that doesn’t mean you can’t post GIFs! This is a simple workaround.

Add a GIF to a Teams chat

  1. Go to a GIF website such as GIPHY.
  2. Search for a suitable GIF.
  3. Right click on the GIF and choose Copy image.
  4. In a Teams chat window, right click and choose Paste, or press Ctrl+V.

That’s it! The GIF will appear in the chat even though the GIF button is disabled.

Image 3

Teams GIFs 1

For IT admins: enable or disable GIFs in Teams

If you’re an admin and want to manage GIF settings rather than relying on workarounds:

  1. Open Teams Admin Center at admin.teams.microsoft.com
  2. Go to Messaging policies
  3. Select your policy (e.g. Global or a custom one)
  4. Find Use Giphy and set it to On or Off
  5. If enabled, choose a content rating:
    • Moderate — Blocks explicit content
    • Strict — Allows only safe-for-work GIFs
  6. Save and allow up to 24 hours for propagation

You can also manage this via PowerShell:

# Disable GIFs
Set-CsTeamsMessagingPolicy -Identity Global -EnableGiphy $false

# Enable GIFs with moderate filtering
Set-CsTeamsMessagingPolicy -Identity Global -EnableGiphy $true -GiphyRatingType Moderate

Teams Disable Gifs

Why is the GIF button missing in Teams?

If you can’t see the GIF button under the compose box, it is almost always a messaging policy setting rather than a fault. Check the Use Giphy option in the policy assigned to you: if it is Off, the button is hidden for everyone on that policy.

A few other things to rule out:

  • Wrong policy. You may be assigned a custom policy that differs from the Global one. Check policy assignment in the Teams admin center.
  • Policy changes not applied yet. Changes can take a few hours to reach clients. Sign out and back in, or restart Teams.
  • A stale client. If other settings also look wrong, see how to clear the Teams cache on Windows.
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