Finally, an App That Makes GIF- and Meme-Making Even Easier

When talking about Sparks, a new GIF and meme-happy app, creator Evan Tana spoke about his platform being an "opportunity" to create a new type of messaging. Sure, that refrain is sounded in Silicon Valley nearly every time a new messaging app or startup is launched. Yet Spark does manage to deliver something unique.

Sparks, which is currently only available on iOS, allows users to blast out captioned animated GIFs and still images. Like Vine, Sparks is easy to use. Users can look at a "Popular" tab to find what's trending, then simply pull images and GIFs from the Giphy database, throw in a caption, add a filter not unlike Instagram, then post. Tana calls these posts "sparks," which can be delivered through Facebook or Twitter.

Barely a year old, Tana's small company has already accumulated $2.3 million in investment from venture capital firms Greylock and Redpoint, as well as backing from Instagram's Kevin Systrom. Not bad for an app designed to help people put text on images.

"We felt there is really a big opportunity to invent for people to capture the emotions and thoughts that is far more expressive in mobile," Tana told me.

When Tana demoed the app for me, it became clear it's a concept that's likely to catch on. There's a market for people who want to blast out GIFs and images in real-time, all in the hope of creating an instant meme out of breaking events, especially sports and politics.

All of this is neat, and more or less in keeping with the evolution of digital and social media, where visual and text-based messaging holes are constantly filled. Then I thought of one libertarian friend's constant stream of Randian memes posted on Facebook, and I have to admit I feel a certain amount of dread at the potential for social mayhem that could come into his hands through Sparks. Consider that potential multiplying across social feeds, and our feeds look like they'll become even more saturated with image macros.

Combine that with Oculus Rift's metaversian virtual reality so close at hand, and the future looks like more in-your-face multimedia activism. Just wait until we get holographic meme delivery from your favorite potato chip brand.

Still, I admit I've wished I could actually GIF things in near-real time. For that reason, I might use Sparks, which does its job well. But even if I don't use Sparks' GIF'ed-out power, other people surely will, especially with Twitter finally integrating GIFs natively.

At this point, any micro-niche for a social app is going to get filled, and in that light, Sparks is actually pretty useful. And if Tana is right, it will give millions of digital denizens one more avenue for easy expression of whatever the hell is on their mind. As to whether that's a good thing, I suppose we'll find out soon.