Can iOS launch images be animated GIFs?

Question

Can iOS launch images be animated GIFs? If so will they play animated during launch? Just curious.

Answer 1

No. Launch images are required to be PNG images, preferably non-interlaced.

Source: iOS App Programming Guide

Answer 2

Launch images can't be animated gifs, as Mike Fay mentioned.

What you can do is display a UIImageView right after launch, and use the animated images feature of UIImageView to animate through a sequence of PNGs. See the UIImageView documentation, particularly the properties/methods listed under Animating Images.