The internet loves a good GIF. There are lots of tools for making them but YouTube has just released its own that should make them even easier to produce, ultimately meaning more wonderful GIFs.

YouTube has quietly added a button in its Share menu called GIF. This allows a person to select a clip of a video, up to 6 seconds, add text at the top or bottom if necessary and have it instantly turned into a GIF. The result is a short link that can be copied and pasted into a website or shared.

So far this appears to have been used to create a GIF of Kate Middleton rolling her eyes on camera in New York. Interestingly the option doesn't appear on all videos. For example super popular videos likes Gangnam Style don't have the option. Whether this is YouTube just testing the feature before a full-scale rollout isn't clear.

The YouTube GIF feature was spotted by the BBC. We've contacted YouTube to find out more and will update when we have details.

Of course lots of people will want to make GIFs from their own footage which should hopefully also be an option after a video is uploaded. But going directly from a smartphone's video to GIF is also possible. Check out our guide if you need to know how.

READ: How to make animated GIFs directly from your smartphone