Update – October 26: WhatsApp has officially announced the stickers feature through a blog post. It also said that it has added support for third-party sticker packs to allow designers and developers to create stickers for WhatsApp. To do this, it has included a set of APIs and interfaces that allow developers to build sticker apps that add stickers to WhatsApp on Android or iOS. This can be published like any other app to the Google Play Store or Apple App Store, and users who download and install the app will be able to start sending those stickers right from within WhatsApp
It said that Stickers will be available for Android and iPhone over the coming weeks.
Earlier: After testing back in July in preview, WhatsApp has finally started rolling out Stickers for its Android app in beta from today. You can click the Emoji button next to the text box, and choose the sticker option next to the GIF to select the sticker pack. You can also check out the sticker pack or add them to favorites when someone sends a sticker.
WhatsApp currently offers 12 sticker packs that can be added by clicking the ‘+’ from the sticker menu. These include
- Cuppy by Minseung Song
- Salty by Alisa Kryzhanovska
- Komo by Sanat Rath
- Bibimbap Friends by Pete Ellison
- Unchi & Rollie by nu1t
- Shiba Inu by Aiko Kuninoi
- The Maladroits by Cole Ott
- Koko by Hanasake Picture Inc.
- Fearless and Fabulous by Ann Shen
- Banana by Jayde Fish
- Biscuit by Ghostbot
- Hatch by Hatch
WhatsApp is also said to be working on animated Stickers in the future and option to create your own sticker pack. Clicking “Get more stickers” takes you to Google Play where you can install third-party stickers, but these don’t work as native WhatsApp stickers.
WhatsApp stickers are available for WhatsApp for Android beta users v2.18.329 and later, while those who have v2.18.310 can view the stickers. You can grab the APK from here since the stable version of Google Play is v2.18.327. iOS users on v2.18.100 are gradually getting the feature, however some say you need to reinstall to get the feature. We will let you know once the feature goes live for everyone.