WhatsApp has launched animated stickers for its beta users

In the past few weeks, there have been reports of WhatsApp testing and trying to bring animated stickers to its messaging app. After a week of rolling out the ability to view animated stickers to beta users, the Facebook-owned platform has rolled out the ability to download these stickers as well. The beta users simply need to update their WhatsApp to access these abilities on both Android and iOS.

As per a report by WABetaInfo, the beta users can access the new feature in three parts:

* The users can view, download and use all received animated stickers.
* The users can import animated stickers from third parties as well. As per the report, a lot of creators have been working on creating their own animated stickers packs which can be imported on WhatsApp.
* The users can download default animated stickers packs from WhatsApp store too.

First animated stickers pack

WhatsApp has already rolled out its first animated stickers pack. Playful Piyomaru is the only animated sticker available for now which is 2.8 MB in size.

Big drawback

However, there is a big drawback to these animated stickers. As per the current implementation, these animated stickers don’t play on the loop. There is still no clarification on whether WhatsApp will decide to loop these stickers or enable users to add the ability.

Earlier in the 2020 WWDC event previous week, Apple announced introduced customisation to emojis and called them memojis that can be used on iMessage. Once iOS 14 is available for all iPhone users, they will be able to add masks to existing emojis. The addition of the face mask was due to the Covid-19 pandemic which has made wearing a mask an essential as the new normal.

Along with the face mask, the Cupertino-giant offered 20 additional headwear, hairstyle, and new age options to create memojis.