Chrome for Android prepares to support GIFs and images in input fields, just like Firefox

Chrome for Android users have been dealing with a somewhat annoying limitation when typing on their favorite browser. Unlike Firefox, Chrome doesn’t let you insert GIFs, stickers, or images through your keyboard into input fields on websites. That’s about to change, though Google still has some work to do before the feature is fully functional.

The news comes from a tech sleuth who regularly spots new features in Chromium browsers before they go mainstream. Chrome Canary, the experimental version where Google tests upcoming features, now includes a flag that enables support for rich content insertion from keyboards like Gboard. The feature is technically there, but it’s not quite ready for prime time yet.

Right now, the implementation is only halfway done. When you enable the flag in Chrome Canary and try to insert a GIF or sticker, you’ll notice that the keyboard no longer shows that frustrating “This app does not support GIFs here” message. The sticker row becomes visible on Gboard, which seems promising at first. But here’s the catch: when you actually try to insert content, nothing happens. The GIFs and stickers simply refuse to go through.

The tipster has even shared a couple of videos for reference that you can check out in this embed below:

This is still progress compared to the current stable version of Chrome. Without the flag enabled, the browser actively blocks these attempts, hiding the sticker options entirely and displaying that dismissive toast notification whenever you try. At least now there’s visible movement toward fixing this gap.

Firefox for Android users have enjoyed this functionality for quite some time now. Being able to quickly drop a reaction GIF or expressive sticker into a comment section or text field has become pretty standard on many apps, so Chrome’s absence in this area has been noticeable. Keyboards like Gboard have supported sending rich media content for years through the Commit Content API, which allows apps to receive images and animated content directly from the keyboard.

The partial implementation in Chrome Canary suggests Google is actively working on closing this feature gap. Once complete, Android users won’t need to copy-paste image URLs or download GIFs separately just to share them in Chrome’s input fields. It’s unclear when this will make it to the stable channel, but the groundwork is clearly being laid.

For now, Canary users can enable the experimental flag and watch for future updates, though the feature won’t actually work until Google completes the implementation.