Soon, WhatsApp will support animated stickers: Details here
What's the story
More than a year after launching sticker support, WhatsApp is working towards expanding the capability - by adding animated stickers.
The feature, according to the latest reports, has been spotted by some users of the messaging service and is likely to reach more people in the coming weeks.
Here's all you need to know about it.
Development
Animated stickers appearing for some beta users
Just recently, WABetaInfo, the tipster that tracks features across alpha/beta stage builds of WhatsApp, discovered animated stickers.
They noted that the feature is rolling out for certain WhatsApp beta users but is only allowing them to view, save, and forward received animated stickers rather than enabling full support with options to import from third-party sticker packs and the default sticker store of WhatsApp.
Limitation
Animated stickers are not looped
Along with being limited in availability, the animated stickers of WhatsApp also appear limited in functionality.
Specifically, they do not work in a looped manner, something Telegram users might be familiar with.
The Facebook-company could enable looping or add a toggle to do so, but there is no way to be completely sure at this stage.
Trial
You need latest WhatsApp beta to check animated stickers
In case you want to check if you are one of the users who are getting the ability to view/forward animated stickers, download WhatsApp's Android beta v2.20.194.7 or iOS beta v2.20.70.26 on your phone.
If it is enabled, the stickers should work on your app, but do remember that you would also need someone to send an animated sticker to verify the feature's activation.
Complete roll-out
Feature will roll out completely soon
Hopefully, WhatsApp will enable the feature completely - with options to download third-party and native animated stickers - for beta users in the coming weeks.
Once that is done, the number of animated sticker creators and senders - which is pretty low right now - will automatically increase.
However, there is still no word on the final, stable release of the feature right now.