Hey everyone! I’m working on a chat application and currently using Giphy’s API to fetch GIF images. However, I’m thinking about migrating to Tenor instead because of their better search results and faster response times.
Has anyone here made a similar switch before? I’m particularly interested in understanding the main differences between these two APIs. Are there any gotchas I should be aware of when making this transition?
Also, if you have experience with both platforms, which one would you recommend for a messaging app that handles around 10k daily active users? Any insights about rate limits, image quality, or search accuracy would be super helpful.
Did this exact switch 2 years ago for our workplace messaging app. Tenor’s search absolutely destroys Giphy - way better at understanding what you’re actually looking for.
The content filtering caught me off guard though. Tenor’s got much tighter controls, which is perfect for work apps. You can block inappropriate stuff without building your own moderation system.
You’re golden with their free tier at 10k DAU. We hit around 15k daily requests and never touched the rate limits. Image quality’s solid - they give you multiple resolutions so mobile and desktop both look good.
Watch out for the API response format though. Tenor uses completely different field names and object structures. Plan some extra time to rewrite your parsing code.
This tutorial walks through the whole integration if you want to see how it’s done:
Took us about a week start to finish with testing. Users definitely picked up on the improved search right away.
switched a while back - totally worth it! tenor’s search crushes it, esp for trending stuff. rate limits handle 10k users fine, but heads up: the response structure’s diff so you’ll need to adjust your code.
Switched 8 months ago - should’ve done it way earlier. Tenor’s API keys are so much simpler than Giphy’s mess of client keys. Load times are consistently faster too, especially for popular GIFs since their CDN actually works properly. What really caught me off guard was how much better it performs on mobile. GIFs load way faster on crappy connections compared to Giphy. Don’t worry about user base size - free tier’s solid and paid plans aren’t crazy expensive. Migration took me 3-4 days with testing, mainly because I had to redo thumbnail handling. But honestly, Tenor’s thumbnails look way better and made our whole app feel more polished.
