I personally do a lot of my puzzle solving on my phone, in the evenings either while holding the baby having finally gotten a break in the restroom or in bed. So my phone has to do most of what I may do while not in the office.
I make gifs on my phone!
I haven't had the occasion to make a gif for a puzzle yet, but here is the app I use on my Android:
VIDEO & GIF MEMES by ZomboDroid
![Video & GIF Memes](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.sstatic.net/d0oMt.png)
I currently use the free version and it works great!
I work from screenshots:
- I may take several screenshots through the process,
- draw on points of interest with my screenshot editor (or I also use my OneDrive app or Facebook Messenger to draw on images and then just save them rather than send it).
- Open in VIDEO & GIF MEMES app,
- add images and set durations
- add text,
- and output with quality options configured to try to get it under 2MB (the image size limit here on Puzzling.)
(Note: that last part was tricky for my uncropped screenshots.)
This process may involve several retakes and redraws, but the end result is satisfying.
I'm sure Rand al'Thor's and theozh's answers are more applicable for the average Puzzler, and I can't help with iPhone, but I thought I'd share what I've used.
Below are some gifs I made on making gifs in the app.
Warning: gifs about making gifs get a little loopy.
![gif Steps 1 and 2](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.sstatic.net/ilq66.gif)
![gif Steps 3 and 4](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.sstatic.net/yQIZM.gif)
![gif steps 5 and 6](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.sstatic.net/5VyRZ.gif)
![gif steps 7 and 8](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.sstatic.net/kzAHs.gif)
![gif steps 9 and 10](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.sstatic.net/j2Am3.gif)
![gif steps 11 and 12](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.sstatic.net/g7uWe.gif)
(I'm not going to divulge how long I spent on that last gif)
There are are a couple other things you can do that I originally intended to include in the gifs (for instance, step 11 should have been where you can add formattable text for difference segments), but I think it's already overkill. =D
Features include:
- Choosing your aspect ratio.
- Setting image duration for individual images or all at once.
- Changing the background and boarders colors
- Choosing output format as gif or video.
- Adding formatted text at durational segments of the gif (I forgot to include that as step 11 above).
- And choosing size, quality, and frame rate options.
- You can also make gifs from videos.
Tip:
You can use "standard" quality for detailed images and avoid using "low" quality by tweaking image duration, frame rate.
Making GIFs From Videos
I used my bilt in screen record function then opened it up in this app and chose to create a gif from a video rather than multiple pictures. You also have the HD quality option when working from a video. Here's the end result, tweaked to be under 2MB:
![enter image description here](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.sstatic.net/eePaB.gif)