Google kills Tenor GIF API, forcing changes at X, Discord, and more

谷歌关停 Tenor GIF API，迫使 X、Discord 等平台做出调整

Google is so famous for killing products that there’s a whole virtual graveyard you can explore. Google’s latest shutdown now has a headstone of its own. Effective today, Google has discontinued the Tenor API, which you may not be familiar with by name. You’ve probably used it, though. Tenor is a database of searchable GIFs, which used to serve animated images to sites like X/Twitter, Discord, and more. Now, it only serves Google—maybe the headstone is a bit premature.

谷歌以“砍产品”闻名，甚至有一个专门的虚拟墓地供人瞻仰。如今，谷歌的最新关停项目也立起了自己的墓碑。从今天起，谷歌正式停止了 Tenor API 的服务。你可能对这个名字感到陌生，但你很可能使用过它。Tenor 是一个可搜索的 GIF 数据库，过去一直为 X/Twitter、Discord 等网站提供动画图像支持。现在，它仅服务于谷歌自身——或许这个“墓碑”立得还有点早。

Like many Google products, Tenor started as an independent company. Google came along and bought Tenor in 2018, and it continued running it largely unchanged in the intervening years. Tenor was integrated into Google products like Gboard and Google Messages, but the API also gave other platforms a way to help users find, share, and save GIFs. It’s similar to services like Giphy and Klipy.

和许多谷歌产品一样，Tenor 最初是一家独立公司。谷歌在 2018 年收购了 Tenor，并在随后的几年里基本保持其原样运营。Tenor 被整合进 Gboard 和 Google Messages 等谷歌产品中，但其 API 也为其他平台提供了帮助用户查找、分享和保存 GIF 的途径。它与 Giphy 和 Klipy 等服务类似。

In January, Google announced it was going to start winding down that API access. It stopped accepting new integrations at that time, and the end date has now arrived: As of June 30, the Tenor API is no more. Google, a company with nearly 200,000 employees and more than $130 billion in 2025 profit, says it decided to stop supporting the image API so it could better focus its resources. The real problem was probably that Tenor was free, and Google didn’t see a way it could make money from a GIF API.

今年 1 月，谷歌宣布将逐步缩减该 API 的访问权限。当时它停止了接受新的集成申请，而截止日期现已到来：截至 6 月 30 日，Tenor API 已正式成为历史。谷歌这家拥有近 20 万名员工、2025 年利润超过 1300 亿美元的公司表示，停止支持该图像 API 是为了更好地集中资源。真正的问题可能在于 Tenor 是免费的，而谷歌没能找到从 GIF API 中获利的方法。

“As part of an ongoing effort to focus resources on enhancing our core products, we’ve made the decision to sunset the Tenor API on June 30, 2026,” the company explained.

“作为我们持续努力将资源集中于增强核心产品的一部分，我们决定在 2026 年 6 月 30 日关停 Tenor API，”该公司解释道。（注：原文此处日期表述存在前后矛盾，文中前段提及 6 月 30 日已关停。）

To be clear, Tenor still exists. You can go to the Tenor website to search for GIFs, and Google’s apps will still source animated images from Tenor (for now). You may not have realized if you were using Tenor through Twitter or Discord, but any favorite GIFs you’ve saved there are gone. Most users didn’t understand easy GIF access was provided by a third-party API and have directed their resulting anger at the platforms themselves.

需要明确的是，Tenor 依然存在。你仍然可以访问 Tenor 网站搜索 GIF，谷歌的应用程序（目前）也会继续从 Tenor 获取动画图像。如果你是通过 Twitter 或 Discord 使用 Tenor 的，你可能没意识到，但你在这些平台上保存的任何收藏 GIF 都已经消失了。大多数用户并不了解便捷的 GIF 访问是由第三方 API 提供的，因此将由此产生的愤怒直接指向了平台本身。

Websites that relied on Tenor have been shifting to alternatives over the last several weeks, so you can still get your GIF fix without tedious manual uploading. X’s Nikita Bier confirmed on June 20 that the site had migrated away from Tenor. Discord, meanwhile, has tested both Giphy and Klipy, but it looks like most users are seeing Klipy integration now. WhatsApp and Bluesky also appear to be moving to Klipy integration for GIFs.

在过去几周里，依赖 Tenor 的网站一直在转向替代方案，因此你仍然可以在无需繁琐手动上传的情况下获取 GIF。X 平台的 Nikita Bier 在 6 月 20 日确认，该网站已经完成了从 Tenor 的迁移。与此同时，Discord 测试了 Giphy 和 Klipy，但目前看来大多数用户看到的是 Klipy 的集成。WhatsApp 和 Bluesky 似乎也在转向使用 Klipy 来提供 GIF 支持。

Users of these websites will see a different selection of GIFs going forward, and not everyone is happy with the selection. Things could improve as more people use Tenor alternatives. Frank Nawabi, who founded Tenor and sold it to Google, is one of the folks behind Klipy. The startup recently raised $3.8 million in funding, and one of the investors was, you guessed it, Google.

这些网站的用户未来将看到不同的 GIF 选择，并非所有人都对这些选择感到满意。随着更多人使用 Tenor 的替代品，情况可能会有所改善。创立 Tenor 并将其卖给谷歌的 Frank Nawabi 正是 Klipy 的幕后推手之一。这家初创公司最近筹集了 380 万美元的资金，而其中一位投资者正是——你猜对了——谷歌。