I use Mlem for my lemmy surfing. And the only way for the gif to be animated is if I click on the image to view it in the image viewer. Then it animates. Just food for thought.
It’s the same issue for posts as well, at least for me. I have to click on the image in a post to see the animated version. But yes it’s much better now than before.
Just a trend I've noticed (lemmy.world)
I don’t usually post gifs, so I have no idea if this is even going to work....