The Snipping Tool app has proved itself to be one of the most useful and impressive utilities to be found in Windows 11. Microsoft has slowly worked to create something genuinely impressive; there have been some omissions, however.
One such oversight is the lack of support for creating GIFs, but this is about to change. The option of saving screen recordings as animated GIFs is overdue and extremely welcome.
See also:
- Microsoft is giving Windows 11 power users and developers new Advanced Windows Settings
- Microsoft adds new AI Actions entry to the Windows 11 context menu
- Major changes are coming to the Microsoft Store — including the ability to update Win32 apps
Almost predictably, news of the growing feature set of Snipping Tool did not come from Microsoft, but from the ever-reliable PhantomOfEarth. Over on X, a video shows how a new keyboard shortcut can be used to access the GIF export option:
First look at a new Snipping Tool feature coming soon to Windows 11: the ability to quickly create GIFs from screen recordings!
You’ll get options to export/copy the GIF, with a choice between low and high quality. This menu can also be accessed with a keyboard shortcut, Ctrl+G. pic.twitter.com/kBsvkHMDtK
— phantomofearth 🌳 (@phantomofearth) May 22, 2025
With the option of high- and low-quality GIFs, Snipping Tools caters for different needs. It also eliminates the need to turn to third-party tools to convert a video into an animated GIF.
At the moment, though, it is not clear quite when this feature will land in the Snipping Tool app for everyone.
