Yellow submarine GIF shoots first choice in WhatsApp during race to find missing Titanic submarine

Social media users are puzzled by the top GIF when trying to message someone – a yellow submarine.

WhatsApp and Tinder are among the platforms with the cartoon GIF of the underwater ship as it swims surrounded by fish.

‘Yellow Submarine’ was the famous name of the Beatles’ upbeat number one hit of 1966 and the cartoon released a few years later.

However, the fame of the submarine GIF comes amid the Titanic’s ongoing rescue mission.

One user suggested that social media was being “shady” by bumping the GIF to the top during the frantic efforts to find the five people on board before they run out of oxygen — though GIF libraries usually list them based on popularity .

On Twitter, the user posted a photo of the GIF as seen on Tinder with the words, “no tinder is shady, why is the featured GIF a submarine?????”

The GIF also appears high on Facebook Messenger, but not on Twitter or Instagram, MailOnline has found.

WhatsApp and Tinder both use one of the largest GIF providers for their GIF library, Tenor, which is owned by Google.

WhatsApp also uses another one called Giphy, but Tinder confirmed to MailOnline that it only uses Tenor.

A Tinder spokesperson said the current trending GIFs on its platform are an “instant pull” from Tenor, which also shows the yellow submarine at the top of his site.

However, Giphy doesn’t seem to give the GIF a prominent place on its site.

According to one expert, GIF libraries tend to have the most used GIFs at any given time at the top, or GIFs related to words in people’s posts.

It is likely that social media users are sending the submarine GIF to each other, probably in reference to the missing Titanic submarine.

“Like Google, Giphy works like a search engine and uses algorithms to prioritize content within search results,” Carolyn White, social media account manager at Carrie-Ann Sudlow Consultancy, told MailOnline.

“I believe it appears as GIFs that are shown and suggested to users based on keywords used in chats.

One user posted a screenshot on Twitter with the words, “no tinder is shady, why is the featured GIF a submarine?????”

The missing tourist submarine Titanic is such a bizarre and constantly evolving news story, for platforms like Twitter and WhatsApp.

“While this particular GIF may not be used, the spike in the submarine keyword used across all messaging platforms is pushing it to the top.”

The word “submarine” is also trending on Twitter, even though the missing ship that descended into the wreckage of the Titanic is a submarine.

A submarine is an independent cruiser with its own power supply and air-conditioning system, while a submarine must be supported by a nearby surface craft or shore team.