How to Create Custom Emoji Stickers on iPhone and Android

Why Custom Emoji Stickers Are Taking Over Messaging

Standard emoji are great, but sometimes 😂 just does not capture the specific face your dog makes when you open a bag of chips. Custom stickers let you go beyond the 3,790 emoji in the Unicode Standard — your own face as an animated character, your cat in a wizard hat, or an inside joke so niche that only three people on Earth would get it.

The sticker economy is genuinely massive. Telegram) alone hosts over 800 million sticker sets. LINE), the Japanese messaging giant, generated over $200 million annually from sticker sales at its peak — proving people will literally pay money for better ways to express themselves. WhatsApp, iMessage, and others have followed, and billions of stickers fly around daily. The good news: you do not need to be a graphic designer. Both iPhone and Android now have built-in tools that make this weirdly easy.

Creating Stickers on iPhone (iOS)

Memoji: Your Personal Emoji Avatar

Apple's Memoji — introduced in iOS 12 (2018) as an evolution of Animoji — lets you create a cartoon avatar that looks like you (or anyone you imagine). On devices with a TrueDepth camera (iPhone X and later), Memoji track your actual facial expressions in real time using 50+ muscle movement points. On older devices, you get the static sticker versions.

Setting up your Memoji:

1. Open the Messages app and start a new message or open an existing conversation

2. Tap the Apps bar below the text field

3. Tap the Memoji Stickers icon (it looks like a monkey face with three dots)

4. Scroll to the left and tap the "+" button to create a new Memoji

5. Customize skin tone, hairstyle, eyebrows, eyes, head shape, nose, mouth, ears, facial hair, eyewear, and headwear

6. Tap "Done" to save your Memoji

Once created, iOS automatically generates a full set of sticker poses — laughing, thumbs up, thinking, heart eyes, and dozens more. These stickers work in Messages, FaceTime, and any app that supports the iOS sticker picker.

Photo Stickers (iOS 17+)

One of the most powerful sticker features on iPhone lets you turn any photo into a sticker:

1. Open the Photos app and find an image with a clear subject

2. Long-press on the subject of the photo (a person, pet, object)

3. iOS will automatically lift the subject from the background

4. Tap "Add Sticker" from the popup menu

5. Optionally add effects: outline, comic, puffy, or shiny

6. Your sticker is now available in all messaging apps

This works shockingly well. Apple's subject detection uses the same Vision framework that powers their Photos app — it can isolate people, animals, food, and objects with impressive accuracy, even handling tricky edges like hair and fur. You can create stickers of your cat, your favorite coffee mug, a funny face your friend made at dinner, or — if you are like me — approximately 47 stickers of your dog in various states of bewilderment.

Live Stickers

If your source photo is a Live Photo, your sticker will actually animate. The subject pulses or moves based on the original Live Photo motion. These animated stickers are particularly fun in iMessage conversations.

Creating Stickers on Android

Gboard Custom Stickers

Google's Gboard keyboard includes a sticker maker called "Emoji Mini":

1. Open any messaging app and bring up the Gboard keyboard

2. Tap the emoji icon, then go to the Stickers tab

3. Look for "Your Emoji Mini" or "Create" option

4. Take a selfie when prompted — Gboard will generate a set of cartoon stickers based on your face

5. Browse through the generated sticker pack and send any sticker directly

Gboard uses machine learning to analyze your face and create stickers in multiple styles. The results range from cute to hilariously exaggerated, and the sticker set includes a wide variety of expressions and poses.

Samsung AR Emoji

Samsung Galaxy devices have their own version called AR Emoji:

1. Open the Camera app and switch to AR Emoji mode

2. Tap "Create My Emoji" and take a selfie

3. Customize the avatar's appearance (clothing, accessories, hairstyle)

4. Samsung generates a complete sticker pack

5. Access your stickers through the Samsung Keyboard or Galaxy Store

AR Emoji stickers are particularly detailed, with full-body poses and animated versions. Samsung regularly updates the available poses and customization options.

WhatsApp Custom Sticker Packs

WhatsApp has become one of the biggest platforms for custom stickers. Here is how to create your own pack:

Using Sticker Maker Apps

The most popular approach is using a dedicated sticker maker app:

1. Download "Sticker Maker" or "Sticker.ly" from your app store

2. Create a new sticker pack (you need at least 3 stickers per pack)

3. Import photos or images for each sticker

4. Use the built-in cropping tool to trace around the subject and remove the background

5. Add text, effects, or borders if desired

6. Tap "Add to WhatsApp" when your pack is complete

7. The pack appears in your WhatsApp sticker drawer

WhatsApp sticker packs must follow specific requirements: images must be exactly 512x512 pixels, in WebP format, and under 100KB each. Most sticker maker apps handle this conversion automatically.

Sharing Sticker Packs

Once you create a WhatsApp sticker pack, you can share it with friends. When you send a sticker from your custom pack, the recipient can tap on it to view and download the entire pack. This viral sharing mechanism is why custom sticker packs spread so quickly in WhatsApp groups.

Telegram Custom Stickers

Telegram has the most powerful sticker system of any messaging platform, and it is not particularly close. Pavel Durov's team has turned stickers into a genuine content ecosystem — over 800 million sticker sets and counting.

Creating a Telegram sticker pack:

1. Open a chat with @Stickers (Telegram's official sticker bot — yes, the creation tool is itself a bot, which is very Telegram)

2. Send /newpack for static, /newanimated for Lottie)-based animated stickers, or /newvideo for video stickers (WebM format)

3. Follow the bot's prompts to name your pack

4. Send 512×512 PNG images with transparent backgrounds

5. Assign an emoji to each sticker (this maps your sticker to emoji suggestions — so when someone types a message that would suggest 😂, your custom laughing sticker appears instead)

6. Send /publish to make your pack available via shareable link

Telegram Premium users ($4.99/month) can upload custom emoji that work inline within text — not just as standalone stickers. This means your custom creations can appear at the same size as regular emoji, embedded right in sentences. It is the closest thing to actually expanding the emoji standard for personal use.

Third-Party Sticker Apps Worth Trying

Bitmoji — The OG of personal emoji avatars. Acquired by Snap Inc. in 2016 for a reported $100 million, it now has over 400 million avatars created. Extensive customization, integrates with Snapchat (where it becomes your 3D avatar), iMessage, Gboard, and Chrome. If you have used any personalized avatar sticker, Bitmoji probably started that trend. Mirror — Focused on realistic 3D emoji avatars generated from a selfie. The results are eerily accurate — closer to a miniaturized you than a cartoon interpretation. Hundreds of pose templates available. Zmoji — Similar to Bitmoji but with a distinct anime-influenced art style that resonates particularly in East Asian markets. Good selection of themed packs and seasonal updates. PicsArt — Primarily a photo editor with 150+ million monthly active users, but its sticker creation tools are excellent — AI-powered background removal, artistic filters, and a community marketplace where you can share and discover sticker packs.

Tips for Creating Great Stickers

Keep it simple. The best stickers have clear, bold visuals that are readable at small sizes. Fine details get lost when stickers are displayed at messaging-app scale. Use transparent backgrounds. Stickers with clean transparency look professional and blend well into any conversation. Both iOS photo stickers and dedicated apps handle this automatically. Express one emotion per sticker. Each sticker should convey a single clear emotion or message. A laughing sticker should look distinctly different from a smiling one. Test at small sizes. Before finalizing a sticker, preview it at the size it will actually appear in messaging apps. What looks great at full size might be an unreadable blob at sticker size. Build a cohesive set. If creating a sticker pack, maintain a consistent art style across all stickers. Mixing cartoon styles or quality levels makes the pack feel amateurish. Cover common reactions. A good sticker pack should include: greeting, agreement, disagreement, laughter, love, surprise, thinking, goodbye, and at least one inside joke or unique expression.

The Rise of AI Sticker Generators

This is where things get wild. In October 2023, Meta launched AI-generated stickers in WhatsApp and Messenger, powered by their Emu image generation model (based on Llama) and a custom diffusion architecture). Type "a cat wearing a tiny cowboy hat eating pizza" and get four sticker options in under three seconds. By early 2024, users had generated over a billion AI stickers.

Apple's Genmoji (iOS 18.2, December 2024) takes this further — generating custom emoji on-device using Apple Intelligence, meaning your descriptions never leave your phone. Google has similar features rolling out across their messaging products.

The results are surprisingly good for quick, fun stickers. Where they fall short is consistency — if you want a sticker *pack* where the same character appears in multiple poses, current generators struggle to maintain visual coherence. The sweet spot right now is using AI to generate base images and then polishing them in a sticker editor app.

Sticker Etiquette

A few unwritten rules of sticker usage to keep in mind:

Do not spam stickers. Sending ten stickers in a row floods the conversation and is the visual equivalent of shouting. One well-chosen sticker is worth more than a barrage.

Match the tone. A goofy cartoon sticker might be perfect in your friend group chat but inappropriate in a work conversation. Read the room.

Respect copyright. Using someone else's artwork or photos as stickers without permission is a gray area at best. Create your own or use licensed sticker packs.

Custom stickers add personality and warmth to digital conversations in a way that the standard Unicode emoji set simply cannot match. The 3,790 official emoji were designed by committee to be universal — your stickers are designed by you to be *yours*. Apple, Android, Telegram, WhatsApp, and third-party apps each have their strengths. Try a few, find what clicks, and go make something that makes your friends laugh.