IssueTracker

Please fix this!!!. We have quite a few apps that cannot use GCM because of this.

This should have a "high" priority, not a "medium" priority. The reason being that you cannot change the package name for apps already deployed to the app store. This means that any apps that have already been deployed with upper case package name are unable to use GCM. :-(

This goes back to an issue with C2DM.  It did not allow the package name permission to start with a capital letter either.  Since Android allows the package name to start with a capital letter, this permission should be able to as well.

Here is the excerpt from android package name documentation :

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/manifest-element.html

"A full Java-language-style package name for the application. The name should be unique. The name may contain uppercase or lowercase letters ('A' through 'Z'), numbers, and underscores ('_'). However, individual package name parts may only start with letters."

Upper case letters should be ok.

After doing a little more digging, the original post has the best description in the correct behavior.  Currently ANY permission must not begin with a capital letter if and only if there is a dot operator inside of it.  Permissions should be able to be created with capitalized names.

Isn't there a way to do this yet?

It's really anoying for everyone, users and developers, to do a new app just for this issue

news ?

결론이 난건가요?

Any Update on this?
I need this feature too.
if the App is already in Store with the packagename "Myapplication.com" and you rename this Line: <permission android:name="myapplication.com.permission.C2D_MESSAGE" android:protectionLevel="signature" /> to a lower case letter, then it will work, but only for Devices with Android 4+.

Please fix this!

You probably cannot fix this retroactively for devices that are already running non-supporting versions of Android, since there's no way to force an update in general.  So to me it seems that the fix would be for the GP store to allow apps to rename their packages on an update from mixed case to all lower case, so long as nothing else changes and so long as there was not already another app with the resulting lower-case name.  The store, being in the cloud, can fix this for almost everyone (except some very unfortunate hypothetical person who decided to have two apps with package names only distinguished by case).  That should handle 99.9 percent of the cases.

This bug has been marked as obsolete but there is no resolution provided.

still opened and still no solution to this after years.

Jeeeeeeez this is such a weird bug.

No, animated gif support is not in 2.0.

Starting to get dissapointed with this OS.  No animated GIF ? I have a few weeks to
return this to Verizon and go with something else?

Unbelievable!  I was wondering what was wrong with my favorite weather radar loop on
my new Droid 2.0.  I can see maybe not having Flash support day one (well, actually,
no I can't) but animated GIFs not working?  My crappy 4 year old Treo was better than
this.  But ooh the Droid has touch screen -- so did my old Treo.  But the Droid has
Google maps -- so did my old Treo.  Hmmmm, come to think of it, maybe I should go
back to my Treo and wait for Verizon to get the Palm Pre (what I really wanted before
Droid hit the market).  What a big let down.

If you'd like to have a nice radar app, try this one:

"Radar Now!"

Animated radar, full screen pan and zoom.

-John Coryat

As a meteorolgist I am very anxious to get animated gifs to work on my new Droid.  
My subscription to weathertap will not animated any radars or satellite views!

Hey guys, this is important web functionality that's been supported under other
browsers for 10 years already.

This issue has been outstanding for a long time.

Is this really so hard to do?  None of the the other webkit browsers have this problem.

I would appreciate support for animated GID as well.  Its frustrating to not have
this.

This really is a big problem.  I got a text today from a friend that had an animated
gif in it and I had to send it to my email address and use my computer to watch it.
My old junk flip phone played animated gifs in texts and in its micro browser.  I
can't imagine that the OS that runs the "genius" phone doesn't have animated gif support.

Oh, now looking at this page is says Priority-Medium...  Better move that up.  This
should be top priority issue.  We are talking about animated gifs not some new format
that is just hitting the scene.  

Im glad to see this isnt just me and something im doing wrong. Of coarse im
referring to the animated .gif files. only opens the first pic. Does anyone know if
this will be addressed on the "maybe December 11th will fix that" day?  

How about "Maybe the 32nd of Never."

There are always ways to get around the ancient method of displaying images called
animated gif. I can see why they left it out. It's one of those nearly useless items
that simply won't die.

yea...but thats just it. They are not dead. In fact, I get them almost daily and
like them. As pathetic as it may sound, I will return the droid if it doesnt play
them. I wont use half of the stuff it actually can do anyway. Cant understand how
they sell something with "known defects". You mentioned ways to get around the
ancient method of displaying?

I think it is pretty sad that a so called "smart phone" can't do something that any
p.o.s. phone does, play animated gifs and be able to send and receive pics and audio
files in a text. The Droid is a battery killer too. I have the display all the way
down in brightness and nothing running. Battery at best last 6 hrs. Hopefully the new
update on dec. 11th resolves many or all of these issues.
Joe

I just opened an email with an animated gif attachment and I couldn't get the joke
because the gif did not animate. Everyone else was laughing while I was left in the
dust. :(

Gonna chime in as a mobile web developer: animated gifs are the only low-weight
(byte) method of adding dynamic visual content to a mobile web site. I mean, you
really want me to plunk in a streaming movie just to flash a "new message waiting!" icon?

I don't particularly care about the animated gif format per se, I'd be happy to
settle for *.apng instead ;)

PS You had time to support <marquee> ? Seriously?

A workaround is to use sprites and animate them with javascript:
http://matthewkwilliams.com/index.php/2009/02/11/javascript-with-css-sprites-
animation/

This was my first so called smart phone. I am going to give it till the 12th before
returning it.If I can't see animations there is no need to keep the phone. I will go
back to my Dare that I was very happy with.

@cpryor3007

Be patient! Droid is an awesome phone all around. It's also my first smartphone. Yes
it is silly that animated gifs are not yet supported. Another thing to remind Google
about is Wikipedia makes heavy use of animated gifs to illustrate concepts.

PLEASE, please, wake up and change this very basic behavior. I would love to support
the OS, and it has great potential, but not supporting animated GIFs, that are
heavily used in weather radar pictures etc. really takes away from the experience.
The same goes for not being able to search contacts by all fields, and watch .avi
video files, and other very basic needs.

FYI:  I was surprised to find that my new Droid will not support looped radar
weather.   A friend of mine uses weather radar a lot and says he is considering
returning his new Droid unless he knows it will be updated soon.

You can view looped weather radar image through "Radar Now!" - a free app in the
market, look under "News & Weather" it's currently # 14.

-John Coryat, USNaviguide LLC

Please fix the gif situation... ill happily go back to my htc touchPRO with WINDOWS
if this samsung moment doesnt get it fixed. its a must to have, when sending and
receiving mms. android is supposed to be the best, ok. first fix the gif's and if
you have time throw in the avi support for my movies that would be great. WHEN (not
if) you fix that issue... i will proudly call it my little iphone killer. Until then
im just disappointed with it. Being a mobile communication device gif support is law
when making a new OS for phones. C'mon google get with it...

I was really disappointed the when I installed Weather Bug on my Droid and when I
looked at the animated radar it wasn't moving. I get a lot of mms messages from my
friends that have animated Gifs. Wow this sucks since all my phones over the last few
years supported this. My wife's freebie Lg phone supports it. I know my Droid does a
lot but I am going to return it before my 30 days are up and look at something else.
Maybe will take another look at the Droid in the future when they get all the stuff
working.

[Comment deleted]

Wow guys - this is really kind of embarrassing.  Animation has been part of the GIF
format since the mid 1990s, and you *still* don't support it?

It's not a vital feature for most users, but it *is* a deeply embarrassing omission
for the entire platform.

Is this something within the OS itself or the browser?

It's a shortcoming of the graphics engine, complicated by the relative lack of memory and the trickiness with
managing what little it has. The implementation in WebKit for GIF support allocates a 32 bpp bitmap for each
frame, which can chew through memory very quickly. The bitmap allocator is backed by ashmem, but when the
kernel detects low memory, it tends to kill the process rather than giving it a chance to back off.

If you have expertise in this area, we'd gladly accept your help in fixing this.

Wish I did. So what does the iPhone have that the Droid doesn't? Seems that all phones
supporting 2.0 would be powerful enough to run a GIF.

Great question - The iPhone also runs on webkit, but animated gifs work flawlessly.

I guess the only explanation is that the iPhone is a better platform.

_Am

According to the Android developer in comment 42 the explanation is that Android has
multitasking while the iPhone doesn't. This means that the RAM needed for animated
GIFs is not there in Android, at least this is true the first generation devices that
only have ~100 MB of usable RAM for the whole system - so there's even less for the
applications to use. This explanation seems kind of reasonable to me, although I
don't know the real amount of memory that would be needed for an average animated
GIF. Maybe a better solution would be to display animated GIFs in case some RAM is
available or to allow the user to see the animation by touching the image or
something like this.

coryat, #36. You're proposing a USA only radar, what's the use for us in Europe?

I have very little programming knowledge (net eng) so I cannot give any help in this
regard. but I really need animated gif support on my phone.  

@45, I don't buy it.  I said this else where but the Android OS shouldn't be
affected memory constraints if idle apps are sleeping.  Even the windoze mobo with
it's horrible memory management can do animated gifs.  I just don't buy the RAM
excuse.

I don't buy it either. So they are saying that you can not view animated GIF being
sent to me through MMS because lack of memory? As much as I like my Droid this is a
real let down. I get 4 or 5 of them a day and can not view them and then get hammered
by my friends when asked if I seen their last MMS message and I got to tell them yep
but I can play it. :(

I'm sure the lack of a file browser so we can upload files is somehow related to
lack of available RAM also.  All I see is Uploads Disabled.  I feel like we're part
of some beta testing social experiment.  GIVE US GIF'S AND FILE UPLOADING IN THE
BROWSER... outside of that crappy Opera browser at least.

The fact that Opera can do browser uploads shows that it is not that hard to do, even without a file
manager.

Please allow animated GIFs and browser uploads.  while you are at it how abbout
allowing numbers to be input with a doble click of the alt button instead of having
to ckick alt first for wach number entered?

@sprangens.joy: never mix issues in the same issue.
This thread is about animated GIF not working, nothing else.

I use animated gifs to review exercises and proper form. This works on the
blackberry for me. I wanted to use my G1 at the gym.. but this proves futile.
http://www.exrx.net/Exercise.html

It was either $130 for a pers. trainer or a G1. The G1 does a lot more useful
things. I can't carry a trainer w/ me everywhere. haha

Thanks,
DD

Why did I switch to a "dumb phone" to this "smart" phone if it can't even duplicate
the "dumb" functionality.  I could view animated radar pages on my two year old
Verizon/LG phone in it's barely functional mobile browser.

it is annoying that this issue still has only medium priority

Something I used to do everyday on my Palm Treo is to check http://m.wund.com for the
latest animated radar image.  I had it set to my homepage so I could get there as
quickly as possible.  When I found that Android 1.5 (now also 1.6) couldn't perform
this basic task, I thought there must have been something wrong with the site.  Low &
behold it's this "high tech" phone.  Wow.  FAIL

C'mon Google, this is turning into an embarrassing problem for you.

For all of you experiencing this problem but wanting animated radar images, I just
noticed that The Weather Channel mobile site has a very nice animated radar now that
works real well on my Moto Droid (2.0.1).  Weather underground is still not working,
but at least Weather channel has a nice pannable, zoomable window that seems to work
very nicely on my phone.  The size of the display is larger than others, and covers a
larger area that the radar now app.
See this website on your handset: http://mw.weather.com
Hopefully this will be a good workaround until someone fixes the animated gif problem.

rediculous that animated gifs cannot be displayed

If you find it rediculous or think the tickest should be fixed please ONLY star this
issue.

Adding comments like "its stupid google doenst has this" or "i want this" is not really
helping this issue.

I think you only comment if you have some different view of this, or if you have so
technical comments.

I am sure google is working on this, so please be patient.

I disagree.   This issue has been outstanding for years.   When I was an early
adopter, I expected a certain number of issues like this.  I expected to be
frustrated at missing basic features.   But, that was years ago.  

Now, Android is marketed and sold as a full featured phone.  It's marketed heavily,
not towards early adopters, but every day common people who have high expectations.
You know, expectations that things are actually going to work.

Expectations that basic web functionality is going to work.   Expectations that
standards that were written in 1984 would be implemented.

If being a pain in the ass user is the only way to express dissatisfaction, then I
guess that's all we can do.   A year and a half of Staring issues and following
threads hasn't done shit.

Google?  You're pissing off your users because you're not taking issues seriously.  
It's time to fix this bug.

Years ago? Android is just one year old.

Just complaining does not HELP this issue. Staring it does: it makes this issue bubble up
higher in the priority list which makes it more important for google to fix.

So yes: i agree, this should be fixed. But i'm getting six of all the repeating non valuable
comments that are being posted here.

Animated gif would be an immense improvement to the Android browser. Go Google!

I was an early G-1 adopter, patiently waiting for a year now.  1.5 nope, 1.6 nope, Droid nope, 2.0 nope,
Dec update still nope.  COME ON!  MY FREAKIN BLACKBERRY AND IT'S PATHETIC, WORTHLESS BROWSER
COULD DO IT 3 YEARS AGO.  

Is there at least some workaround?  Can I see radar loops in Opera or Steel?  

Is there a firm date for this feature yet?  

My extended patience for this seemingly basic, DOS-era feature is turning to bitterness.  If videos can
be played, how is it possible a few GIFs can't fit in RAM.  

With all due respect, Comment 42  by c...@android.com, Dec 11, 2009, just proves
exactly what I've suspected all along. The Android team lack the necessary skills to
build a phone worthy of comparison to the iPhone.

"With all due respect, Comment 42  by c...@android.com, Dec 11, 2009, just proves
exactly what I've suspected all along. The Android team lack the necessary skills to
build a phone worthy of comparison to the iPhone."

^^ They aren't trying to make it as good as the iPhone, they are trying to make it
better.  The first priority was obviously multitasking, something the iphone doesn't
do.  Once they got that straight, all the other little bugs associated with it needed
to be ironed out... such as this GIF issue.

Apparently this has been fixed in Android 2.1, as I've read from several sources that
the Nexus One supports animated GIF files.  Soon you'll no doubt be able to upgrade
older android devices to 2.1 and the problem will be a thing of the past.

Comment 67  by mpsantiago, Today (7 hours ago) said:
>^^ They aren't trying to make it as good as the iPhone, they are
>trying to make it better.

Really, I hadn't noticed! But seriously, when shall well expect an Android OS and
iPhone killer app? When? I really want to know.

>The first priority was obviously multitasking, something the iphone
>doesn't do.  

Wrong and wrong. Sorry, you just lost credibility.
#1 the iPhone does multi-task! It just doesn't allow it on downloaded apps (without
jail breaking).
#2 The Android began with a Linux kernal (open source code) which natively supports
multi-tasking (the Android team didn't work hard on this - relatively speaking!)
#3 A good multi-tasking OS is also supported by good memory management. Android has
had two years to solve this problem and still nothing!

>Once they got that straight, all the other little bugs associated with it
>needed to be ironed out... such as this GIF issue.

Nonsense! This has been a problem for over a year and relatively easy to solve.

Android team: If you want this solved (and other issues), contact me.... I will
dedicate four of my best programmers to this project and have a solution in two months.

Still, other elementary issues are not solved in 2.1, such as connecting to hidden
SSID WPA2, oh just look at the thousands of issues.

What a troll...

"What a troll..."

Seriously.  

Meanwhile I'm here on my friend's Nexus One, with 6 cpu intensive sites open in their
own tabs simultaneously in the browser with almost zero lag... while streaming
Pandora in the background.  My iPhone will be on ebay tomorrow if anybody wants
one... t-mobile here I come...

Really, do you know the definition of troll?

Seriously, there is no need for name calling. I am sorry to appear so antagonistic
but I have good reason. I entered the Android market in April (09), full of hope...
to launch some of our successful apps in the Android store, only to eventually learn
that most of the promises (made by my service provider and Android) have never come
to fruition. Such as: The Android team have little control over OS versions (among
the different hardware and service providers), there are too many bugs in version 1.5
that are being carried over to OS 2.x (e.g. hidden SSID on WPA2), serious memory
management issues on many levels, after more than a year there is still no resolution
to the huge number of countries restricted from the Android market (seriously, this
is NOT a difficult problem to solve!).

Anyhow, go drop your iPhone (which I doubt you own) and get that 'superphone' Android
Nexus. Is it better? I guess that depends on what you value the most. In the
meantime, I am going to wait until I see multi-touch, vastly improved memory
management, better battery life, wifi as good as other non-android phones, a proper
desktop application for syncing, backup, and Market browsing, one click apps updates,
and full Market access to other countries such as Canada, etc.

If you were permanently stuck on Android OS 1.5 (yes I know I have the option of
rooting) like I am, you might understand that my user experience truly sucks!

Comment #68 on issue 36908610 by connelly.shawn: Animated GIF not working in
browser
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3422

>>The first priority was obviously multitasking, something the iphone
>>doesn't do.

>Wrong and wrong. Sorry, you just lost credibility.
>#1 the iPhone does multi-task! It just doesn't allow it on downloaded apps (without
jail breaking).

So from a developer and user point of view it doenst right?

>#2 The Android began with a Linux kernal (open source code) which natively
>supports
>multi-tasking (the Android team didn't work hard on this - relatively speaking!)

You really dont know what you're talking about.
A big part of the Android API is about making multitasking work:
Activity life cycle management, intent filters, memory management, background
services, battery live.
This is really a big effort. You're right linux support multitasking but thats for
desktop, where talking phones here.
I think they even rewrote some linux multitasking part: there is for example the BFS
scheduler: Brain Fuck Scheduler.

>#3 A good multi-tasking OS is also supported by good memory management.
>Android has
>had two years to solve this problem and still nothing!

That is exactly where android is a top notch Star: killing the iphone in all features.


>>Once they got that straight, all the other little bugs associated with it
>>needed to be ironed out... such as this GIF issue.

>Nonsense! This has been a problem for over a year and relatively easy to solve.


I agree that this issue should be solved. However you must understand the
complexity.

>Android team: If you want this solved (and other issues), contact me.... I will
>dedicate four of my best programmers to this project and have a solution in two
>months.

Again: you dont know what youre talking about.
Maybe they already have a solution but are reluctant to implement it because of
contracts with phone manufacturers.

>Still, other elementary issues are not solved in 2.1, such as connecting to hidden
>SSID WPA2, oh just look at the thousands of issues.

You're a troll, definitly.
This is issue 36908630 and were talking animated gif here.

I just purchased the HTC Droid Eris. I'm a meteorologist and rely on various websites
for animated radars, satellite loops, etc. Can't believe this phone doesn't support
such items when so many older and less advanced phones. do. I hope that someone will
find a fix soon, whether it's a different browser that can be downloaded, or a plugin
for the existing browser, and that they'll report here. I've tried some of the
weather/radar apps, but none are as good as what you should be able to access through
a premium mobile browser. Would also be interested if anyone can find out whether the
2.1 upgrade, if and when it happens will support animation ... Also, does anyone know
of a high-quality flash weather radar on the web, and whether it works with existing
OS on the Droid Eris with a flash plugin (is there a flash plugin that can be
downloaded from the market?... what about a plugin to play java loops?... anything?)

PS: While I've read that Android 2.1 fixes the animated gif problem, I saw somewhere
else that someone tried a hacked version of 2.1 and it *did not* resolve the problem.
So would be interested if anyone can investigate for clarification/confirmation
either way.

Amazing the endless stream of comments on this issue and the very slow turnaround at
Google. You guys hire the best of the best engineers, and go through all this work of
setting up a public site for bug tracking and user feedback, and you still fail. :(
Don't get me wrong I love most of what Google does but this issue has become an
embarrassment for them. I guess it happens to all companies when they get large enough.

Comment 75 by cdavaz - careful or you will be labelled a troll LOL.

I am not sure if fundamental changes are required to Dalvik (I am NOT a fan of VMs in
this context!)-(This is likely why iPhone apps run so much faster than equivalent
apps on Android)

Without actually understanding the true nature of the problem, I am certain that it
should not be that complicated (at least with smaller animated GIFs). Someone said it
was a licensing issue BUT the patent expired a few years ago! SILLY!

Come-on, nearly every browser enabled phone I have ever owned in the past five years
could display animated GIFs. The Android team stating that they are running into
technical limitations, that prevents animated GIFs, seems to indicate some
fundamental problems with the OS or more specifically.

If the Android team really-truly needs help on this issue and the many other critical
issues, why not completely open up source development to the community. If this is
already the case, someone please point out were the source code (and source control
reports) are located.

I use iMap Weather for animated radar imaging.

I'd settle for saving the GIF to the SD card and using an app that converts it
before it shows it.  Heck, upload it, convert it, download it and show me (clap Card
by Raymond Rulin uses an animated format of some kind).  It would at least be
something.

I'm no hacker, but it soulds to me like this could use an approach like audio
formats use. Just an idea.

Yeah, no matter how pretty your tux is, if you've got ketchup on your shirt, forget
it.  Go to the restroom guys.  Next time keep a shout wipe in your pocket.  Devs
need to develop, and pick environments with unforeseen issues in mind.

So why can't the webkit be updated?  I'm sorry, but if I miss a call from a
prospective employer becuase my phone didn't work, I can't blame it on the phone.
It's a package deal. Own it, and work with the people who make the tools, but don't
blame it on the tools.

It also helps angry, impatient people to see progress, step by step, even if it
isn't huge leaps.

google guys
any news with the animated gif problem?

We're working on it; that's all I can say.
All relevant code is open source -- feel free to propose a solution.
For the technical challenges, see comment #42

I think it's great that the android team responds to these comments. Can i ask a
more specific questio of the android team. Is it true or not true that android 2.1
solves this problem? And if so, does that mean some of the earlier phones (like htc
droid eris, for example) will be getting upgraded to 2.1 and thus will have this
problem addressed? Also, what can you say about the prospect for other forms of
animation like java or flash. Or will we just have to wait until a firefox comes out
with an android browser (which i imagine would likely support animated gif, java,
flash, etc?)?

yeah takes a lot of the developers time adding flashy rubbish like live wallpapers,
wish google would start adding features people want rather than stuff they know
reviewers will wet themselves over.

appreciate the efforts, is there any update for this in 2.1?

Puzzled why a simpler feature phone like my previous Dare had animated GIFs but Android does not.

... and my blackberry could do it almost 3 years ago.  Is it really that hard?  It
doesn't seem like it should be that hard.  Maybe it's just a low priority for some
reason.

Haha, wow, its crazy how many ppl claim they're going to take back their Android phone because it does
everything they want it to and more *except* playing an obsolete animated weather radar gif, or a
dancing kitten they were sent in an mms. Not to bash ppl for being frustrated, but look at the phone!
Androids are pretty sweet. And animated gifs will be here soon enough.
-Posted from my HTC Hero.

Well, it's not just animated gifs. It also doesn't seem to play java loops. So the
disappointment it doesn't allow for accessing some very basic features of many
websites while at the same time many other phones (and older and less advanced ones
at that) have no problem handling the same items. What's annoying is that some people
here seem to be taking shots at the Google/Android team, or at commenters, rather
than seeking out or reporting on workarounds. Surely there must be someone out there
who has found a workaround (be it an app or plug-in or something else that's doesn't
require much technical expertise to implement), or can offer clarification as to
whether Android 2.1 will solve this problem (and if and when phones such as the HTC
Droid Eris will be updated to 2.1). On notes related to animation or lack there of,
does anyone know prospects for flash, silverlight and other plug-ins with regard to
both old and new Android phones?

Comment 85 by theamazingaustin, I am pleased that your user experience is positive
BUT remember because of Google's failure to prevent OS version and feature
fragmentation, user experience varies greatly among all the different phones and carriers.

I am on a HTC Magic (OS 1.5) and my user experience is very bad. Animated GIFs? I
don't care that much about this missing ability. However, all the other more serious
problems make using this phone a very frustrating experience (for both me and those
trying to contact me). So much so, that my wife is annoyed that I bought this phone!  

Dropped calls, call quality (can't hear the other party [not low volume - NOTHING!]
even when I have a perfect signal, non reacquired signal, forced close on dialer,
etc... some of the many problems with my HTC Magic.

For more of my issues, see: http://androidforums.com/android-lounge/36408-android-
where-going-new-post.html

I went to weatherbug elite.  It's only $2.  It has the radar loop.  WELL WORTH IT.  
Some people don't like the current temperature in the status bar, but I love it.  It's
a great app that filled that nagging hole.  I got used to a radar loop on my blackberry
for 2 years, then "upgraded" to no radar loop.  The Droid *IS* a great phone, but
weather *IS* a very important part of a smartphone.  The droid GPS and turn-by-turn is
AWESOME.  It has a lot of great stuff, not to mention a great screen, but Android still
needs the animated GIFs.

People this thread is about the disability of the android platform the animate animated
GIFS, its not about 'java loops' (comment 86), dropping calls (comment 87) or a specific
app like weatherbug (comment 88). So please stick at the issue at hand.

So the only supposed response from the Android team is shown up in Comment #42
(http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3422#c42), stating that the issue
is a problem with available memory caused by the way WebKit converts the animated
GIFs into 32 bits-per-pixel bitmaps. I want to call total BS on this. Here's why:

The Android platform is capable of displaying 480p VIDEO!!!!

They can't honestly be serious that the Android software is capable of decoding
720x480 h264 video at 30 frames per second, but can't decode and display a measely
animated gif that is 768x496 and 9 frames long? Let's do the math:
VIDEO:
  720 * 480 * 24bpp (video doesn't have alpha channel info) * 30fps = 248832000bps =
30,275 KILOBYTES per second

ANIMATED GIF:
  768 * 496 * 32bpp * 3fps (I'm estimating) = 36569088bps = 4,464 KILOBYTES per second

So an animated gif is taking up rougly 1/8 of the memory requirements of something
Android is already capable of doing (at least on the Motorola Droid). Now, to be
fair, it's not a totally fair comparison because the web browser has a lot of other
objects in memory. But at the same time, the media player is both decoding video AND
audio at an incredible speed compared to an animated gif. So, I am definitely not
buying into this excuse. At the very least, animated GIFs should be possible in MMS
messages, since you're not displaying an entire webpage, just a simple animated graphic!

At the very least, the device should be able to decode two frames of the animated GIF
at a time. That way, one frame is displayed while the other is being decoded. When
the 2nd frame is ready to be displayed, display it, dump the info about frame #1 and
begin decoding frame #3. Etc etc. (Anyone ever heard of OpenGL? That how
double-buffering works!) I'm sure everyone in this discussion group would MUCH rather
have animated GIFs at 1 frame every 5 seconds (just a silly example) than no
animation at all!

So anyways, sorry for the long post everyone! But it angers me that the Android team
is making such an excuse for the lack of such an archaic feature. It'd be like saying
your Chevy pickup truck is fine pulling an 18-wheeler out of a ditch, but towing your
lawn-mower is just too much to ask of the truck!! Come on!!

 

With respect to comment #90, I think you are confusing CPU throughput with memory capacity. Decoding
480p video requires enough memory to hold a few frames of video and an audio buffer. As soon as a frame
has been displayed, that memory can be reused for a new frame. The framerate doesn't matter here - a
higher framerate will require a beefier CPU, but not more memory. In other words, the memory usage should
be:

    720 * 480 * 24bpp * frames_of_buffer = about 1MB per frame of buffer

As comment 42 mentioned, a limitation in their current graphics engine decodes each frame of the GIF into its
own 32bpp image. Presumably, all of these frames are kept resident - the GIF is not decoded multiple times.
As a result, the memory usage of a GIF image should be:

    768 * 496 * 32bpp * frames_in_entire_gif_animation = about 1.5MB per frame of animation

Let's say that the typical weather loop uses the dimensions that you gave, and is about 10 frames in length.
This means that you need about 15 MB just to decode the entire GIF. That's a lot of RAM on any mobile
device, but especially on Android.

Now, GIFs are indexed images. This means that they are actually only 8bpp, so it should be possible for each
frame to be about 1/3 as big as it currently is. However, while that would decrease the memory usage, it
could make it more expensive to copy the image to the display. This would keep the CPU busy, and would
hurt battery life.

Of course, smaller GIFs present less of a problem. You're right, GIFs in MMS could probably work.

It may be true that other mobile platforms are capable of displaying animated GIFs in the browser, but that's
just because they made different trade-offs.

[Comment deleted]

DAM THAT IS SAD THAT STINKING GIFs PROBLEM WELL THAT IS GOING TO BE SAD WHEN THE NEW
HTC HD2 COMES OUT AND YOU HAVE THAT STINKING PROBLEM !!!THAT REALLY STINKS!!!!! COME
ON GET THAT FIXED YOU FREAKEN
WIMPSSSS >:-(

I know this doesn't solve the problem of viewing animated GIFs within the browser,
but a workaround I've found would be to download the GIF and then display it using
the picture viewer, through Albums, at least on my Eris.  It only plays one sequence
at a time though and the only size is to fit the screen.

So the obvious question would be why does it work in the Viewer, and not the Browser?
Even though I'm multitasking and have both open as the same time.

Many meteorology sites use animated GIFs - this feature is absolutely required by me.

I use several apps and widgets that have animated objects. Beautiful home has animated
weather, handcent sms has animated mms support(for their own picturres only) and now
android 2.1 has animated wallpaper, but we're still not getting animated gif files? How
does this make sense? Please make your "superphone" actually super.

[Comment deleted]

You note those technical challenges, but are you aware that an alternative SMS/MMS
app known as Handcent SMS has the ability to play my gifs?

His implementation opened the MMS message in a separate window, instead of trying to
display the animation in the thread/conversation view of the  text messaging app.

When in the conversation/thread view, it just shows thefirst frame of the image, with
a play button on it, to open it and fully play everything on its own screen/window.

This way you don't have to store the animation in the main conversation/thread
window. I think this is the best way to conserve memory while keeping the original
style of the text messaging application in Android.

For the browser, well maybe you can try some downscaling and not playing animation
while scrolling? Ultimately, why don't you just bring out phones with more RAM? I'm
tired of powerful portable devices being handicapped by a tiny bit of RAM just to get
things done.

I've got a Motorola Droid, this thing has enough RAM to keep some apps in memory and
multitask, so if it can do that, surely you could temporarily close some background
stuff while playing the animations, as a last resort.

I really look forward to this. An alternative for those wanting animated gifs in
messages, download Handcent SMS (its free) and use that to send and view animated
gifs in messages. Something you could be waiting years for on an update from Google.

As far as the gallery and the browser, I don't think there are any alternative
solutions at present, although "Imagine Multitouch Gallery" (in the market) is
suppose to add animated gif support in the future. Its going to be a shame if we get
these features from small developers before Google can chip them in.

I've created a temporary solution that works for me when viewing individual animated
GIFs. In android browser go to:

nolanpro.com/?f=[url to animated gif]

Works for NWS radar loops:

http://nolanpro.com/?f=http://radar.weather.gov/ridge/lite/N0R/AMA_loop.gif

Uses javascript css php imagemagick voodoo to kinda mimic the animated gif. Its not
perfect, but works for me. Open to suggestions. Thanks!

Pretty cool nolanpro- thinking outside the box :)

Now just create a browser plugin so that I can touch and hold a gif file in the
browser and get prompted to "Display image with nolanpro.com" :)

I have a htc hero and not getting animated gifs, while admittedly a small thing, is
still very bothersome to me. I saw a poster say that the handscent app allows these
images to play. I also have handscent installed but I don't get any animations
still. It shows the play button in a seperate window and I can hear the sound... but
no animations. Can anyone who uses this work around explain how to get these gifs
working? Thanx!!

I'm not a programmer, but post #42 mentions this:

"The bitmap allocator is backed by ashmem, but when the kernel detects low memory, it
tends to kill the process rather than giving it a chance to back off."

I looked up ashmem to get a better idea of what it was in the Android Developer
Reference Guide, and it mentions this:

"MemoryFile is a wrapper for the Linux ashmem driver. MemoryFiles are backed by
shared memory, which can be optionally set to be purgeable. Purgeable files may have
their contents reclaimed by the kernel in low memory conditions (only if allowPurging
is set to true). After a file is purged, attempts to read or write the file will
cause an IOException to be thrown."

"synchronized boolean    allowPurging(boolean allowPurging)
Enables or disables purging of the memory file."

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/MemoryFile.html

Is it possible to set that flag to disable purging of the files used by the bitmap
allocator in ashmem to force it to stay alive while it plays the GIF, then maybe
manually purge it after the GIF is no longer in use? Again, I'm not a programmer, so
I have no idea what's possible; just trying to help things along.

diazivan: Using ashmem to back a file, whether purgable or not, doesn't factor into this. The problem is that
when the browser uses too much memory using any mechanism, it is killed. Further, there is no mechanism to
know beforehand if an allocation can succeed. There's no simple solution for this.

Ah, gotcha. So it allocates so much memory that it actually kills the Browser process,
despite it being in the foreground (and therefore the highest "importance")?

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/fundamentals.html#proclife

The browser already delegates youtube, a memory intensive media app which requires more
CPU and memory than almost any animated GIF processing, so you would think that an
option to launch an external program from the browser (or anywhere else for that
matter) similar to the way youtube is stubbed within webpages now would be an
appropriate way to handle playing animated GIFs from the browser. I've read some
discussion of a demo app somewhere which plays animated GIFs as movies, so this seems
like a reasonable project for someone motivated enough to undertake.

it cant be a memory issue, it cant be a horsepower issue, my 386 running windows 3.11
(25mhz, 4 meg of ram, 256k video ram) can show motion gifs

embarassed yet?

So here we are....9 months since this thread was started. What is the game plan?
Does the Technical Project Manager assigned to fix this problem have a plan to fix
this? Is there anyone working on this problem or have we heard the last from the google
team?

Hi john.p.guevara. This issue is not forgotten. I understand your frustration, but this forum is solely for reporting
bugs and requesting features. I can't comment about the status of Android engineering or our deployment
schedule.

Animated wallpapers, but no animated gif? I seriously doubt you guys are really going to
implement this feature.  This has been an issue since day 1. Where is the "beta" label for
my droid? It needs one.

Really? Wow. My Palm PDA from the stupid ages can crank out an animated GIF like
nothing.  I'm sure it's obvious to the dev team that this is an easy fix and a silly
thing to have overlooked.  Kinda depressing, hope it gets fixed.

I switched over from an Env2 last month and thought I was advancing by getting the
Eris.  How could a basic feature like animated gifs not be included in this device?  
What a disapointment!  

I just found this out today when (what was supposed to be) an animated MMS didn't
animate. I hopped on the web and realized none of them were playing..how was this
missed?

I just switched over from the iPhone to the Nexus One and realized I could no longer
open my streaming webcam site, see animiated radar on m.wunderground.com site, and
see an animiated .GIF that was sent to me through MMS. Now I know this is still being
worked on.

i was an early user of the Droid also until 8am day after i bought it and realized
it doesnt do .gif files.   It got returned to Verizon that same day. Yes and
scumbags charged me 30 or 35.00 to return it.  Also  i tried out the new DEVOUR
today at Best Buy and guess what????  It doesnt support the .gif files either.
Cannot believe Google/Motorola/Verizon/Android  would release such nice products
that are crippled right from the start with something as basic as animated
pictures.  What a shame you have to stick to Verizon's crap menus but at least their
phones support animated pic messaging.

So what the OS doesn't have support for for .gifs....get the handcent txt app, it allows my Droid eris to
play them.

WHAT IS TAKING SO LONG TO INCORPORATE ANIMATED GIFS IN THE BROWSER!??!?!

PS TEXT IS IN CAPS ON PURPOSE >-0

I can't believe it. Is there anyway you guys can show us what work you've been doing so far on this
problem or put a link or email for people who would like to help with this problem so we can help you
guys on this? This is a basic and needed function

HTC Eris, 1.5 - Bottom Line - Why can't HTC or Google provide an update for Animated
gifs and also for playing all video formats?  All weather radar sites use animated
gifs and to intentionally leave it out of the operating system gives you an idea on
the priorities of the Engineers that have been developing the operating system.  The
excuses of well this is the beginning of the Android operating system so there will
be errors is ridiculous!  What's so odd about the animation is that Verizon store
reps have no idea why animated radar won't play on 1.5, 1.6, 2.0 or 2.1.  Someone
should educate them on the Operating system and it's defects.  Please someone write
software to allow animated gifs.  I depend heavily on radar animation.

just changed from the Envy2 to the Droid yesterday and found out today that the
Droid does not support animated gifs.  Amazing.   SOOOOO disappointed!!!

Still waiting for this. Still waiting for v2.1 too. And hands-free Bluetooth dialing.

Don't wait on 2.1 to clear up the animated gifs problem.  The gifs issue has not
been addressed as a priority so who knows if anyone is going to write a solution in
the updates.  I have the HTC Eris and I would think HTC would write an app for
animated gifs before Google or the developers get around to it.  Eris is a nice unit
as are other Android phones, but the planning for the OS is terrible.  Gifs and a
multi formatted video player are in dire need for users.  Also, they need a refresh
selection in the menu area when browsing rather than having to hold down your finger
on the screen until the refresh option appears.  Some websites don't have enough
blank space to press your finger down on without it clicking on an item.  You'll
notice they have Refresh in the email menu, but not in the browser menu.  Dumb
planning.

This is taking far too long.
My SE P910 was, ummm - IS, far better in supporting media than my G2 Magic and my new
Nexus One.

It's embarrassing.

I can play Quake3 but not a gif?

I think we should all return our so called "Smart Phones" and get something else
till this basic feature is included. Before my Samsung Moment I had the Motorola
Hint from Cricket and as Crappy as the service was they supported animated Gifs. I
mean come on now that's really embarassing for a phone thats suppose to be
revolutionary.

You can say how hard gif support is but if cheap
phones can do it then so can smart android
phones. My old razor phone could do it... So that
is no excuse.

Now the DROID is getting animated wallpapers... but can't animate gif files.  Where
are your priorities?  Obviously prioritizing the animated gif is not important, lets
put more eyecandy.  what made google successful is how plain your searchbox on the
homepage is, and the services you provided... not eyecandy.  DONT BE EVIL.  Is that
your motto?  Well evil people would allow this gif issue to remain.

verizon's false advertisement the droid is not a mini computer cause computers play
GIF's dis phone doesnt a big waste of $300 man n florida all of metro pcs phones
play GIF's i recieve all these cool GIF's n have 2 transfer it 2 a real computer 2
see it 2 much work giv me my money bak lol

Wow, there's a lot of bashing going on about this, c... has been very patient. I'm sure (s)he is giving their
superiors updates about the continued interest in this issue, and that (s)he's not lying when (s)he says
that it is a priority and they're working on it. It's also highly probable that they're not overstating the
difficulty or complexity of the issue. There's no motive to do so. If it were a low or zero priority issue,
c... would simply say so and be done with it. I'm also certain that it would be c...'s pleasure to close this
thread as solved, so give them a break, but keep voting on this so they keep seeing the attention it's
getting.

The Nexus one is a "superphone" that has a 1ghz snapdragon processor and I'm sure
plenty of memory. Maybe earlier android phones had memory issues, but the droid and
nexus one definitely have enough. Handcent sms can play animated gifs in android, so why
can't anyone else just make an imageviewer that works like theirs. They have to work with
a data cap of 1mb for sms files, but can't google just make something like this so we can
view animated gifs? Maybe not in the browser, but in some kind of viewing program...
ANYTHING!? This is my only complaint about the operating system, but its really
aggrivating nonetheless.

Thank you Nolanpro.  As far as Google goes?  WTF.  Animated Gifs don't work and this
has been a known issue for the past year?  There is a workaround, see post 99.  

I'm going to put some thought into this... as an 18+ year software engineer, there's
always the off chance I might be able to help a little ;)

Seriously though... it seems like the Android folks made a serious flaw when
implementing GIFs in the first place, by making the 32bpp. Yes, I'm sure it's more
efficient when drawing to the screen if you don't have to translate from 8pp to 32bpp
for every frame... but when you realized a year ago that this completely prevented
you from doing multi-frame GIF files (which are a basic building block of a VAST
percentage of websites, including some of the most popular and highest used like
Facebook) you should have re-designed THEN rather than back-burnering it and hoping
someone would come up with better hardware or more memory or some other way of
dealing with the problem.

Sounds like the simplest solution (from a design standpoint, not coding) would be to
load GIFs internally in their native 8bpp format, and do the translation at display
time. Might be choppy on GIFs that attempt to show mini-videos with rapid updates,
but it DOES make coding a little easier in the sense that you can take advantage of
the multiple GIF packages out there that already do this (and already implement the
myriad of GIF extentions) rather than recoding it all in 32bpp yourself.

That would at least give you a stop-gap solution that could go into 2.1 and give SOME
support to the literally 100's of 1000's of websites that rely on animated GIFs to
deliver content that's been standard for the last 10 years...

Also, as a stop-gap, you can add to the browser the ability to enable and disable the
animation effect, to reduce CPU and battery load. Disable it by default, and put a
warning on the setting selection that says "WARNING: Can cause high battery and CPU use"

Then you have something that people can use, and the onus of managing battery use is
on the user... until a better solution can be made.

So today I tried to view a gif and it didn't work. Everyone already knows this (using
cupcake so yeah, no gif support). Anyway, I'm not a coder, but I have to maintain
code at work so where exactly do I need to go to see your coding for the gifs? I
might not be able to pull a solution from thin air but I might be able to at least
see some work around or something. As stated numerous times in this thread, .gif's
are an important (almost essential) part of the internet for "eye-candy" to
navigation. I would like to see this implemented in some degree. (Make an update for
your gallery app?)

Having the ability to view in a webpage is nice and for others its important, i just
want to have the ability to see them. I don't care if i have to save the image first
and delete it afterwards (would get old after a while, but as long as i can see the
loop at least i'm happy). Tell us the problem in here (like details why it
doesn't/won't work) and maybe we can help with a creative solution. You don't have to
be a coder to give an idea, just to code the solution (that's what we have you guys
for ;)). Thanks for listening.

@danuber2004, I would also like to contribute... I know some Java, but but am not the
best at it.  It would be nice if I knew exactly where to navigate to see what I can do.

If you want to work around this with your own Android build, you'll need to modify C++ code, rebuild, and
reflash your phone. You'll need to make two fixes to the released sources.

1) edit the function should_use_animated_gif() in
external/webkit/WebCore/platform/graphics/android/ImageSourceAndroid.cpp (around line 217). Return true
to animate gifs.

2) Change setRGBA() in /WebCore/platform/image-decoders/ImageDecoder.h (around line 173) to call
                 *dest = SkPackARGB32(a, r, g, b);
instead of
                 *dest = (a << 24 | r << 16 | g << 8 | b);

With these changes, gifs will animated correctly on large memory devices like Droid and Nexus One.

There's no code path for animating gifs in arbitrary applications like Gallery, except by rewriting it to host a
WebView modded as described above.

Cary, Thank you for the workaround! I really appreciate you investigating this
problem. Are you implying that we need to root our phone to implement this change
though? Or can this be done without root access? Thanks again!

finerrecliner: Several posters have expressed an interest in working on this bug. I hope this is enough to get
them started. I am not aware of a way to patch the system software short of building your own.

Thanks c... I'm gonna work on it, and ill post link to forum here if its allowed

Last I checked gif only supported 8bpp so why are you generating 32bit bitmaps to
render it? also, other webkit apps and crappier hardware have been able to process GIF
for going on 15 years. Whats the excuse?

Just bought an HTC Hero yesterday and the most important website I need for access
to my work will not work. I confirmed this with other android phones at my service
provider. Been on the phone for hours today trying to get a fix but all say it is
only fixable by HTC. Go to www.alaskasworld.com and it will not let you login to
employee access only.

rhodes5: I verified the failure on a couple of devices, and filed a bug internally to track it. You may want to refile
your comments in a new bug since this is not related to animated gifs, the topic here.

I was about to purchase a Droid to trplace my BB, but when playing with a droid in the store I found that it didn't
show animated radar so I put off my purchase.  As an Athletic Director for a school, I have to be able to monitor
approaching weather during outdoor activities.  I really didn't know there were smartphones still made that
didn't have this ability.  My old pearl did it back in 2006.

I am a concrete contractor who relies on animated radar almost every day. I also am a
phone nut, tried just about every phone from nextel and sprint over the last 10
years. The only phone that would not show animated radar was a HTC Hero. A phone that
I really liked but had to return it in 1 day. With each new version of android I keep
hoping that animations would work. Unfortunately until this is implemented I will
have to stick with something other then android. Currently using Blackberry tour.

I was so hoping that 2.1 fixed this defect...but no.  The company I work for has a
support website that our employees use to quickly see new responsibilities.  These
new responsibilities are implemented as animated gifs. Because the Android native
browser can't display animated gifs, our company will not buy Android phones.  

Please fix this so I can use my Droid for business and pleasure.

Note Cyanogen has enabled animated GIFs in CyanogenMod:
http://github.com/cyanogen/android_vendor_cyanogen/commit/944bd2a1fd39506760229f2bcd5fe
ebab63238ee

Note his comments underneath; memory is the issue (as stated above.)

from what I can gather, Google knows about the issue, has known about it for years, and
is doing nothing meaningful to change it.  This is a deal breaker for many, I'm sure.
why invest in a (damn spendy) "smart phone" that can't match the basic functionality of  
everyday crap phones? combined with thethe whole attitude of updates perpetually being
"just around the corner", and Android is starting to look a lot like betamax.  Think i
might just head on back to my blackberry...

How about when the phone tries to show an animated GIF, it sends the gif file out to
a server, the server renders the gif animation as a youtube stream, and send the
stream back to the phone to display.  :)

Yes! I don't know if it is cyanogenmod, ese81 or xScope but animated .gif's now work on my
droid!

It's unfortunate that you have to "hack" your phone to take advantage.

I apologize, I didn't read every single message here, but I did a quick search and
didn't see all these ideas solidified so thought I'd post my thoughts.

It appears that the goal of the Android OS will be to have all devices running the
latest version of the OS.  So even the earliest Android devices will be running 2.1
or whatever, but it's possible the additional apps will take up more resources than
the older devices can handle, so you just know "well crap, I guess I just can't run
Google Earth on my <someancientandroiddevice>".

So why not something like this:

* Quick and dirty fix - have a checkbox in the configuration to enable animated GIFs.
 If it's a newer device and can handle it, cool.. if not, then have a popup warning
when you enable the option saying "may cause browser to close.. disable if you have
any problems"

* Failing that, why not have a 'lite' version of the browser and a full/deluxe
version that uses more resources.  People with older devices will just know that they
can't use the fancy stuff.


Maybe I missed part of the conversation that says that even newer devices with more
memory have a problem.  I apologize if that's the case.

So memory is an issue...

Wow.  I NEED animated weather for my job.  I've been a Treo owner for years and was
looking forward to the droid 'upgrade'.  But the lack of this single feature may be the
deal breaker for me.  This HTC Eris might be going back to Verizon.

Animated GIFs work on Froyo (unreleased) on large memory devices like the Motorola
Droid and the Nexus One. I'm leaving this issue open as we continue to investigate
viable solutions for smaller memory devices.

Yesterday i received my first Android device (HTC Desire).
It is a great working device, but am very disappointed that no animated GIFs can be
displayed, that was for me the most important thing in the entire phone.
I use the mobile internet the most outdoors especially for the weather, this is now
a problem for me.
If this problem can not be solved i'm considering going back to Windows Mobile.

This new update (Froyo), is it also available for the HTC Desire?

I too wish the Droid supported animated .gifs.  I must have a couple hundred animated
.gifs in my Gallery that I use to send people in a text message for birthdays,
holidays, etc.  I also have many people send them to me.  They do not work on my
Droid which is very disappointing because every other phone on the market can support
them but Droid doesn't.  Hope AT&T starts using that in one of their ads.....maybe it
will finally get enough attention to be enabled/fixed/supported.  With each update I
was hopeful it would be supported.  They made 2.1 with stupid Live Wallpapers, but
couldn't add the useful .gif support.  I hope this will be addressed sooner rather
than later.....but I am not holding my breath.

Animated gif's ae fixed in browser... I like it cause my gif's work for my webpages... but like
flah, I always have to use backup image or solution anyway for other devices... be nice
when all mobiles become at least as consisent as the sucky browser tradeoffs between ie/
safari/firefox...

So if I understand correctly...

If I trade my Eris in for the Motorola Droid, I will be able to view animated gifs (ie
looping radar) when Froyo is released?  Being new to the droid, how do we obtain the
upgraded OS?  Is it carrier dependent?  I'm a Verizon customer...

I work in an office with two other people that have Verizon phones.  I have the Eris
Droid and they have a Blackberry and a cheap generic flip phone.  I do not get
animated gifs or weather radar...but they do.  They can receive and makes calls and
text messages in the office...but I can't.  I ask myself what can this great phone
do that theirs can't?  Well, it runs out of power after three hours at work and that
is with the mobile web and wifi shut off.  My phone also makes and receives ghost
calls from people in my address book.  I have had this phone for three months and
hate it more each day.  Just how much consumer testing did Google/HTC/Verizon do
before releasing this junk?

keep up the good work guys.

Maybe the other commenters shouldnt be using android if they are really this dependent
on animated gifs.

maybe you should not use a computer to write a paper for school? or maybe it should
never rain in the river. jeez useless comments like above makes me write another
useless comment regarding that useless comment - Waste of redundant time.

geez just buy a freaking iphone, it supports animated gifs.

The latest DroidMod ROM displays animated GIFs just fine on my Droid.

To Frank Tate, please give us the model phone and software level you have.

So... change two lines of code before compile and Android will animated GIFs...so why
isn't it already implemented? Having seen what Google is capable of, I really have
trouble believing this is such a tough problem. GIFs have been around for a long time
and mobile phones have been playing them for a long time, too.

I have been a big Google fan since the site started way back in the 90's and I use
many Google services which I'm very happy with. When I bought the N1, spending a
considerable amount of money, I thought I was buying a product that had at least the
same level of quality that I've come to expect from Google when using their FREE
services. Animated GIFs are a very basic, widely-used and nearly
universally-supported media format. For Google to deem them not worth adding to
Android is just asinine.

For large memory phones like Droid and Nexus One, the two-line change has been made in Froyo (unreleased)
to enable animated GIFs. For small memory phones, the change is not trivial and did not make it into this future
release.