diff --git a/src/components/views/messages/MImageBody.js b/src/components/views/messages/MImageBody.js
index 9fd42fb31d..2f12022140 100644
--- a/src/components/views/messages/MImageBody.js
+++ b/src/components/views/messages/MImageBody.js
@@ -197,12 +197,18 @@ export default class MImageBody extends React.Component {
             // synapse only supports 800x600 thumbnails for now though,
             // so we'll need to download the original image for this to work
             // well for now. First, let's try a few cases that let us avoid
-            // downloading the original:
-            if (pixelRatio === 1.0 ||
-                    (!content.info || !content.info.w ||
-                     !content.info.h || !content.info.size)) {
-                // always thumbnail. it may look a bit worse, but it'll save bandwidth.
-                // which is probably desirable on a lo-dpi device anyway.
+            // downloading the original, including:
+            //   - When displaying a GIF, we always want to thumbnail so that we can
+            //     properly respect the user's GIF autoplay setting (which relies on
+            //     thumbnailing to produce the static preview image)
+            //   - On a low DPI device, always thumbnail to save bandwidth
+            //   - If there's no sizing info in the event, default to thumbnail
+            const info = content.info;
+            if (
+                this._isGif() ||
+                pixelRatio === 1.0 ||
+                (!info || !info.w || !info.h || !info.size)
+            ) {
                 return this.context.matrixClient.mxcUrlToHttp(content.url, thumbWidth, thumbHeight);
             } else {
                 // we should only request thumbnails if the image is bigger than 800x600
@@ -215,10 +221,10 @@ export default class MImageBody extends React.Component {
                 // timeline (e.g. >1MB).
 
                 const isLargerThanThumbnail = (
-                    content.info.w > thumbWidth ||
-                    content.info.h > thumbHeight
+                    info.w > thumbWidth ||
+                    info.h > thumbHeight
                 );
-                const isLargeFileSize = content.info.size > 1*1024*1024;
+                const isLargeFileSize = info.size > 1*1024*1024;
 
                 if (isLargeFileSize && isLargerThanThumbnail) {
                     // image is too large physically and bytewise to clutter our timeline so