The Tenor API shutdown does not establish one universal expiration date for every old Tenor link. Google’s official notice specifically describes the third-party API being decommissioned on June 30, 2026, while Tenor remains available in Google-owned products. It does not guarantee the lifetime of every historical media URL.
An application should therefore treat old links according to their type and observed behavior, rather than promising that they will all survive or all disappear.
Separate three kinds of links
An API request asks the service for data, such as search results or an item record. This is the dependency affected by the announced API sunset.
A Tenor.com page link points to a consumer webpage. It can remain reachable even when your application cannot use the developer API. Whether a chat app creates a preview is a separate decision made by that app.
A direct media URL points to an image or video resource. Its present availability is not a guarantee of future availability. It may be cached, removed, or otherwise unavailable independently of search.
Make old messages fail gracefully
Keep the original provider, ID, source page, and descriptive text where your data model permits. If a media load fails, replace the broken-image icon with a readable unavailable state. Keep message text and surrounding conversation intact.
Do not substitute another GIF automatically. A sarcastic reaction, a celebration, and an apology are not interchangeable merely because search returns them for similar words. Offer a replacement action for editable favorites, but preserve sent-message history.
Do not turn uncertainty into a bulk-download plan
Availability does not grant permission to copy and rehost a provider’s collection. Review your agreement and the rights associated with the content before retaining or redistributing media. An API sunset does not automatically change those rights.
For new selections, use a supported provider and save its identity alongside the result. GIFs.so’s integration guide explains its returned media and source URLs; its IDs are independent of Tenor IDs.
The migration guide covers a complete inventory. For a single broken link, first test whether you saved a webpage or a media file before changing your rendering code.