WhatsApp is the world’s most popular messaging platform. Known for its simple user interface and end-to-end encryption, WhatsApp is often slow to add features found on some of its closest competitors. The WhatsApp team weren’t quick to add support for Dark Mode for Android and iOS and were pretty late at the party when it came to stickers too.
However, the designers at WhatsApp are making up for that lost time.
WhatsApp has released six new sticker packs to add an extra visual flair to your one-on-one and group chats. In contrast to emoji – the little pictograms for iOS, Android, Windows 10, MacOS, and more – stickers are much larger and more detailed. They’re also only available in WhatsApp itself, so you can’t copy a sticker from a text message and send it to someone else in an email. The six new WhatsApp sticker packs are available for both Android and iOS.
The bottom line is that anyone you notify on WhatsApp doesn’t need to have downloaded the sticker pack to get a picture of you. However, if they want to return the favor and send one back, they will need to download the appropriate bundle.
The six new sticker packs include Egg And Chup, Square Cheese’s Daily Life, Frauenkaktus, Realistic Rabbit, Betakkuma 2 and finally A Burdensome Pigeon Named Eagle.
Honestly, these are all pretty unique designs. For example, Square Cheese’s Daily Life is a SpongeBob Squarepants-like character who introduces himself in a number of poses that might be useful when sending a message to someone – one of the cartoon characters is jumping in partying, surrounded by hearts, one is rolling with laughter and much more . Female cactus has some very similar poses, except that instead of a square slice of cheese … the cartoon character is a cactus with a woman’s legs.
All of these new WhatsApp stickers can be accessed through the WhatsApp sticker store. All six are available for free, which is not always the case with some competing messaging services. To access these new cartoon characters on Mac, Windows, or WhatsApp Web, you must first download the stickers packs and install them on an Android or iPhone device.
To add sticker packs, open a conversation in WhatsApp, look at the keyboard and tap Emoji> Stickers> Add. Next you need to press that Download Button next to each sticker pack that you like. A green check mark will appear next to any sticker packs that are already in your collection. This means that they are ready to chat.
Tap to update existing sticker packs and make sure you have the latest designs Emoji> Stickers> Add. Then in the ALL STICKERS Tab, tap TO UPDATE next to the sticker pack that needs to be updated. When prompted, tap TO UPDATE again.
If you’re having trouble seeing any of these menus in your chat app, WhatsApp recommends: “Stickers are available in the latest versions of WhatsApp. If you don’t see any stickers, make sure to update to the latest version of WhatsApp in your phone’s application store. “
