Hello armani10,
Welcome to Apple Support Communities!
We want to help so you can view GIF without issue on your iPhone.
To help isolate the issue, does this happen in multiple apps or only Messages?
Try the steps here to save the GIF:
"Save a GIF
You can save a GIF that you receive in a message to the Photos app on your iOS device. Here's how:
- Open Messages.
- Open the message that has the previously sent GIF that you want to save.
- Tap and hold the GIF, then tap Save. If you have an iPhone 6s or later, you can use 3D Touch to save a GIF. Just press deeply on the GIF, swipe up and tap Save."
This Apple Support page has the full details: Send and save GIFs on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support
If the issue remains, try a normal restart of the iPhone and then test again.
We hope this helps.
Cheers!