The company was founded by entrepreneurs David Macintosh, Erick Hachenburg and Frank Nawabi in February 2014 asRiffsy.[3][2] Tenor was funded byRedpoint Ventures,Menlo Ventures, Cowboy Ventures andTenaya Capital.[2][7] In 2016, Riffsy was rebranded to Tenor, reflecting its broader ambition to become the emotional search engine of the internet.
It also launched an SDK to help developers integrate GIFs into apps and games.
On March 27, 2018, Tenor was acquired byGoogle. The company has continued to operate as a standalone brand.[8]
On April 25, 2017, Tenor introduced an app that makes GIFs available inMacBook Pro's Touch Bar.[10][11] Users can scroll through GIFs and tap to copy it to theclipboard.[12]
On November 6, 2017, in response to users having utilized Tenor and similar services to distribute GIFs with content that isillegal under local laws, the IndonesianMinistry of Communication and Informatics threatened to blockWhatsApp. The regulator acknowledged that despite being from third-party providers, WhatsApp was wholly responsible for allowing the content to be disseminated to users, because the feature was part of their platform. The next day, Tenor was blocked in the country.[16][17][18][19][20] The threats were later dropped.[21]
