WhatsApp is working on a new feature that will suggest stickers based on the words you type, according to a report. The new feature is said to be currently under development and it could be made available to both Android and iOS users. Some references suggesting how the sticker suggestion feature could work have surfaced online. It is also said to be initially limited to WhatsApp’s native sticker collections. Companies including Apple and Google already offer contextual emoji and sticker suggestions to their users.
The new feature will analyse the first word you type in the chat bar to suggest relevant stickers, WhatsApp beta tracker WABetaInfo reports. The source has also provided a screenshot and a video that suggests the default sticker icon in the textbox would flash to notify users when a sticker suggestion is available. Users would just need to tap the flashed sticker icon to view the suggestions, as shown in the video.
WhatsApp is reportedly testing the new feature for its in-house sticker collections at this moment. Nevertheless, we can expect it to be available for third-party stickers as well. It could also be expanded to emojis over time.
The sticker suggestion feature is not yet available even to beta testers. It is, thus, safe to expect that it would not be available for experience anytime soon.
Having said that, the reported details suggest that WhatsApp is working on growing the usage of stickers and emojis on its platform.
WhatsApp introduced stickers on its platform in October 2018. Since then, it has made several moves to convince more users to send stickers via the app. The Facebook-owned company enabled support for third-party stickers, allowed users to create their personalised stickers, and even introduced a search bar to find stickers. Last year, WhatsApp also brought animated stickers to enhance the experience.
Similar to WhatsApp’s ongoing development, Apple has offered predictive emoji support to iOS users to let them send emojis instead of simple text messages. Google’s Gboard also has had artificial intelligence (AI) based emoji and sticker suggestions since late 2018.
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