Which browser first supported looping animated GIFs in version 2.0?

Netscape Navigator was the browser that first supported looping animated GIFs in version 2.0. Netscape added this capability in September 1995, helping establish the endlessly repeating GIF animation as a familiar feature of the early web.

GIF itself could store multiple images, and the GIF89a specification added graphic-control information such as frame delays. Continuous looping, however, relied on a Netscape-specific Application Extension commonly called the Netscape Application Block. That block could specify a repeat count, with zero representing an infinite loop.

This distinction matters because looping was not originally a universal core feature of the GIF89a standard. Netscape implemented the mechanism in Navigator 2.0, after which other browsers gradually adopted support. Modern browsers generally recognize the same looping convention, even though the extension began as a vendor-specific addition.

The answer is sometimes confused with “GIF89a,” which is the file-format version rather than a browser. Opera, Mosaic, and Internet Explorer later supported animated-image behavior, but Netscape Navigator 2.0 is the canonical browser-and-version answer associated with first support for looping animated GIFs.