We've had a glimpse of a forthcoming WhatsApp feature that should make it much easier to express yourself with stickers.
Stickers are small cartoon images that you can insert into a WhatsApp conversation as a change from plain old emojis. The app comes with several 'packs' of stickers by the same artists, and you can download extra ones to add more variety.
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Unfortunately, finding exactly the right sticker can be a challenge, particularly once you've grabbed some extras, because you can only browse by pack. If you're looking for a 'congratulations' sticker, for example, you might need to scroll through dozens of others to find one that suits the mood.
Now it looks like that's about to change, with the addition of tabs that will gather stickers related to a particular feeling.
Let's get animated
The new feature was discovered by the keen-eyed experts at WABetaInfo, who specialize in trawling through the install files of WhatsApp beta releases for hints about future updates.
Tabs for stickers are still in development and aren't yet available to test, but we'll keep you updated and let you know when they're ready to try. Hopefully they will be introduced alongside the Sticker search tool that was first hinted at in November, which will make the cartoon images as easy to find as emojis.
The options seem to have been in development for a long time, but we suspect they might be ready for release very soon. Only a few months ago, WhatsApp introduced animated stickers to liven up your chats, encouraging users to download additional packs, so the ability to search and filter by mood would be a real boon.
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