All over the internet, there are animated GIFs, little short snippets of videos and life that are sometimes poignant, sometimes hilarious, but always short and to the point. With 5SecondsApp, you can make them yourself using your iPad’s video camera.

In an incredibly easy to use interface, 5SecondsApp has a video camera icon in the upper left that kindly says “Tap the video camera to get started!”. The app then walks you through everything; when you’re recording, as your 5 seconds is up, it pops up a message to tell you so and stops the recording itself. Then you simply follow the on screen instructions to convert that little video snippet into an animated GIF that you can then choose to send via SMS, Email, or even save to Dropbox if you have it installed. You can even Tweet your GIFs.

5SecondsApp is a tiny download and a fun program to play with. Making GIFs has never been easier. I made several before I was finished. Then I clicked the “check” button in the upper right to take the storage area into edit mode, and systematically selected each GIF one at a time, then clicked the trash can at the bottom of the screen to delete it. The videos it uses aren’t saved to the camera roll, and once you’re finished playing with it, the GIFs themselves barely take up any room at all.

Now, if I can just get my cat to do something adorable in the five seconds the camera’s on him, I’ll be thrilled.

Price: Free

Version reviewed: 1.0.1

Requires iOS 5.0 or later

Download size: 1.0 MB

5SecondsApp on Apple App Store