  Animated GIFs are increasingly popular in text-based communication. Finding
the perfect GIF can make conversations funny, interesting, and engaging, but
GIFs also introduce potentials for miscommunication. Through 24 in-depth
qualitative interviews, this empirical, exploratory study examines the nuances
of communication practices with animated GIFs to better understand why and how
GIFs can send unintentional messages. We find participants leverage contexts
like source material and interpersonal relationship to find the perfect GIFs
for different communication scenarios, while these contexts are also the
primary reason for miscommunication and some technical usability issues in
GIFs. This paper concludes with a discussion of the important role that
different types of context play in the use and interpretations of GIFs, and
argues that nonverbal communication tools should account for complex contexts
and common ground that communication media rely on.
