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WhatsApp wants to catch up to Telegram with sticker suggestions
Sticker suggestions based on what you type are incoming
WhatsApp isn't exactly a driving force of innovation in the messenger market, but the developers are always adding smaller tweaks to improve the experience. The company only recently brought back speed controls for voice messages and implemented improvements to its disappearing messages. As WABetaInfo reports, WhatsApp is now looking to make it much easier to add stickers to chats.
WhatsApp has supported stickers for a long time, but it has always been tedious to add a new pack if your friends didn't happen to send you a sticker from the desired collection via the chat app. The latest version of WhatsApp makes that easier with support for deep links, allowing you to add stickers to WhatsApp by simply tapping an address on your phone. For example, you can add the recently announced "Vaccines for All" pack via this link: https://wa.me/stickerpack/VaccinesForAll.
In his teardown of Gboard v 7.4, Cody saw signs of a new personalized "minis" sticker pack coming. The feature is now live in v7.5.6 beta, which started rolling out today. The new minis stickers are a re-implementation of the selfie stickers that launched on Allo last year — as a matter of fact, many of the options are the same — but instead of one pack, you get two: "Bold mini" and "Sweet mini."
In a world full of ways to express oneself, sticker packs and emoticons remain some of my favorites. Being a user of Telegram, I often take advantage of the stickers there (my favorite is the Geralt of Rivia/Witcher pack). SwiftKey is continuing to add new features via its Toolbar. Now users can look for two new items: a set of emoticons from Skype and a Halo sticker pack.
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- You can now download Allo 11 from APKMirror, but clearing the app's cache and force-closing may be required to see the new feature.
Selfies are a bit of a pandemic these days; it's almost impossible to get through a day without seeing at least a few on social media. In keeping with that theme, along with Allo's obsession with sticker packs, the 'smart messaging app' can now create personalized sticker packs from just a selfie. We first spotted this in a teardown back in January, but it's finally live.
I'm told there is some sort of basketball tournament going on right now. To celebrate, Google has released an NBA sticker pack for Allo. You know, that chat app that Google really wants you to try out.