WhatsApp stickers to get an animated boost with Lottie support،
For the 3 billion people who use WhatsApp, a small but interesting update is on the way: improved stickers with clear and detailed animations.
According to WABetaInfo, the go-to source for WhatsApp updates, the latest beta for Android version 2.24.5.10 from the Google Play Store reveals that the app is working on support for animated stickers built on the Lottie framework. These will complement the basic WebP-based stickers already available.
Lottie makes stickers on WhatsApp more interesting by adding movements, transitions and effects. What's more, you can enlarge or reduce them without losing any quality, so they appear perfectly on all types of screens and chats. Unlike traditional animation formats like GIFs, Lottie uses vector graphics, which can be scaled to any size without pixelation, ensuring it looks sharp on different screens.
The functionality to share Lottie stickers is currently under development and will be available in a future app update. In addition to implementing support for Lottie stickers, WhatsApp is also working on support for animated emojis.
Messaging apps are evolving beyond text, images and videos. Many apps now support GIFs, customizable sticker packs, and new Unicode emoji additions. For example, Google Messages, a major rival to WhatsApp, recently introduced a new feature called Screen Effects (for now, for beta users). This feature adds animations to the background of a message when specific phrases are sent or received, emphasizing the intent of the message.
As artificial intelligence becomes more and more prevalent in applications and devices, new ways of reacting and interacting are on the horizon. Meta, for example, has already introduced AI stickers to Instagram, Facebook Stories, Messenger and WhatsApp, giving users even more expressive options.
