Sticker

Cultural/Communication

Larger, more detailed digital images used in messaging apps, often animated, that complement but are separate from standard emoji.

Stickers are a step beyond emoji — they're larger, more detailed, and often animated. While emoji are Unicode characters rendered by fonts, stickers are images distributed through messaging platforms.

Stickers originated in Asian messaging apps (LINE in 2011, KakaoTalk, WeChat) and became a major revenue source through sticker packs. Western platforms like iMessage, WhatsApp, and Telegram later adopted sticker features.

Unlike emoji, stickers are platform-specific and not standardized. You can't send a LINE sticker in WhatsApp. Google's Emoji Kitchen blurs this boundary by generating stickers from emoji combinations.

Related Terms

Emoji Emoji
A Japanese word (絵文字) meaning 'picture character' — small graphical symbols used in digital communication to express ideas, emotions, and objects. Emoji Kitchen Emoji Kitchen
A Google feature that lets users combine two emoji into creative mashup stickers, available in Gboard and Google Search.

Related Tools

⌨️ Emoji Keyboard Emoji Keyboard
Browse and copy any of 3,953 emojis organized by category. Works in any browser, no install needed.

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