The GIF search engine now known as Tenor was founded in 2014 as Riffsy.
Riffsy launched on February 1, 2014, as a mobile-focused GIF platform and keyboard app. Its founders were David McIntosh, Erick Hachenburg, and Frank Nawabi. The service was built around helping people find and share short animated images in messaging conversations, rather than merely hosting static image files.
In 2016, Riffsy changed its name to Tenor and expanded its identity beyond the original GIF Keyboard product. The rebrand accompanied broader tools for developers and made Tenor more recognizable as a GIF search and discovery service across apps and websites.
Tenor is often mixed up with Giphy because both provide searchable GIF libraries, but they began as separate companies. Google acquired Tenor in 2018; it continued operating as a GIF search engine and database, with its keyboard available across major platforms.