Apple’s GIF search won’t find some images from China
Using Apple’s iMessage app to search for “Chinese” GIFs gives you a blank page
Sending GIFs in messages is popular and easy. Plenty of messaging apps now have search functions to grab just the right GIF from anywhere on the web as a witty retort to your friends.
But the app Apple bundles with iMessage appears to be restricting certain searches related to China.
If you search for “China” or “Chinese” using Apple’s own GIF search app inside iMessage, you won’t get any results at all. Similarly, searching for contentious terms related to China, like “Xinjiang” or “Falun Gong,” only results in a blank page.
Bizarrely, there appears to be little logic regarding what works and what doesn’t. You can find images related to “Tiananmen” or “Tibet.” But you can’t find images for “Shenzhen” or “Hubei.”
We tested the #images app inside iMessage on iPhones in Hong Kong with their regions set to the United States and Hong Kong. We also checked with a colleague using an iPhone in the United States who saw identical results.
Most GIF apps like #images search the web or user-generated libraries for GIFs rather than relying on those created by the app maker themselves. But results seen on Apple’s #images app differ to what’s on other iMessage apps. Giphy, the Google app and GIF Keyboard all return results for the search term “Chinese.”
