In what looks like an accidental move, WhatsApp released new animated stickers in the WhatsApp Store in Beta v2.20.194.7. The feature disappeared in a subsequent Beta update v2.20.194.9, suggesting that the feature is still very much in development.
While other apps like Telegram and Gboard already support animated stickers, WhatsApp only has the ability to share non-moving static stickers so far. In WhatsApp beta v2.20.194.7, there were three parts to the animated stickers: the ability to view/send/save stickers, import stickers from third parties and the ability to download stickers from the WhatsApp Store.
During the brief time the animated stickers were available, there were 5 sticker packs: Playful Piyomaru, Rico’s Sweet Life, Moody Foodies, Chummy Chum Chums, and Bright Days. Interestingly, you can’t add or find these sticker until someone sends it to you. That will surely be changed once the feature is fully developed and rolls outs to the public.
Another quirk in this feature that was noticed, was that the animated stickers did not loop in the chat. It would play once and if you wished to see it play again, you would need to scroll the page back and forth. We are unsure if WhatsApp plans to change this when they finally roll out the feature.
Whatsapp beta v2.20.194.7 can be installed via the APK file from here. Just keep in mind, if you have auto-updates enabled, the app will update to v2.20.194.9 and you will not be able to see animated stickers anymore.