Popular messaging app WhatsApp is planning to introduce support for animated sticker packs. The Facebook-owned app’s latest beta update for its Android platform has claimed that it might be bringing animated sticker packs soon. Several users have already spotted animated stickers in the latest WhatsApp beta version. If reports are to go by, WhatsApp will introduce animated stickers support to both iOS and Android platforms. The company will extend animated stickers to the WhatsApp Web after making it available on the mobile operating systems. The animated stickers are slightly different from GIFs. While animated stickers play continuously and thus repeat the animation, the GIFs stop playing after a few seconds.
The Animated Stickers will arrive in WhatsApp via sticker packs. The animated stickers will need to be downloaded just like normal stickers are downloaded. Reports suggest all sticker packs in WhatsApp will also receive an update from the server. To update the sticker packs, users will have to go to Chats and then Stickers section and then tap the Plus icon. Users can see an option to update all stickers packs which were previously downloaded. To send an animated sticker to a friend, users will just need to tap on the emoji icon and then go to the stickers section. From there, users can send an animated sticker after downloading the sticker pack.
WhatsApp tested a similar feature in the past, but the company abandoned it. The company has not announced the date of launch. But users are advised to look for all the WhatsApp updates on both Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Meanwhile, the Disappearing Messages feature in WhatsApp was recently spotted in the latest beta version 2.19.275 for Android. The feature allows group admins to specify a time after which messages will be automatically deleted. The company had initially said that the feature will be available for both individual chats and group chats, but it is likely that the feature will be limited to groups only. WhatsApp has over 1.5 billion active users in the world.
