Well I googled this instead of goobling and The Internet has informed me that - yes when I save it to my camera roll it appears to be a jpeg because it is saved as a static image. But somehow secretly it still knows it is a gif and when I send it onwards to other people by text or email it will reanimate. I have tried this and it does reanimate.
Maybe it only reanimated in iOs systems though... The Internet didn't have much more to say about that when I asked it last night, but it may be in a better position to advise when I talk to it again later today.
I tried installing a gif app but I need to update my operating system blah blah blah. Tat meant getting out of bed and flapping around on the computer at 2:00 am so it didn't happen. May happen at 2:00 PM today...!