How to put a GIF on your friend’s screen

A chat app puts a GIF inside a message. GIF Launcher opens it on the screen itself, in a small window on top of whatever your friend is doing, at the same moment it opens on yours. You both need the app, on Windows 10 or 11.

1. Install it on both PCs

Download it below or get it from the Microsoft Store. Both are the same app and play together. The first time it opens, it asks you to claim a handle and shows a recovery code. Keep the code: it brings your profile back if you reinstall or move to another PC. There is no account and no email.

2. Make a channel

Click the channel button at the top right of the launcher. Until you join one it says Not in a channel. Press Create, and you are in a channel of your own.

3. Bring your friend in

Press Invite a friend in the row at the top. It copies a link like giflauncher.com/j/CODE. When your friend opens it, their app joins your channel. They can also paste the code or the link into the channel box and press Join.

4. Press Play

Paste a GIF link into the field at the top, or type to search GIFs, videos and sounds, then press Play or Enter. It opens on every screen in the channel at the same moment, yours included.

• Ctrl + Enter plays a link as sound only.
• Shift + Enter opens it in a new window beside the one already open (Pro).
• Give a card in Recent a key, and that key sends it, even while a game has the screen.

Where it lands

Placement in the side bar sets the spot on the screen and the size. The window does not take focus, so a game keeps its mouse and a call keeps its window.

Making it stop

Ctrl + Shift + Backspace closes everything on your screen. In the channel panel, Close mine and Sound on here close or mute what others send, on your screen only. Private channels take a password, and anyone can be blocked.

What you can send

Any link: GIFs, videos, sounds, images, YouTube, TikTok. On the free plan GIFs and short sound effects are unlimited, plus 5 videos, music or other links a day. Whatever your friends send plays for you. Pro takes the daily limit away.

Does my friend have to be at the PC?

Their app has to be running and in the channel. It starts with Windows and waits in the tray, so most of the time it is. A phone cannot receive one; the app is Windows only.