An animated GIF is a sequence of images combined into a short, looping animation. It is stored in the GIF file format (Graphics Interchange Format), which supports lossless compression and can display up to 256 colors. Animated GIFs are particularly popular in social media, web design, and digital marketing campaigns due to their simplicity and small file size. They are used to convey brief visual messages, grab attention, or show a fun or informative animation. Since GIFs automatically loop and require no user interaction, they are especially useful for quick communication. However, GIFs can be limited in quality due to their restricted color palette and file size limitations.