WhatsApp may finally gain support for animated emojis. In the experimental version of the messenger, evidence was found of the app’s new native stickers which, just like in Telegram, are giant and animated versions of familiar faces.
The animated sticker signals are in the WhatsApp Desktop Beta code, but cannot yet be accessed by testers. They behave like traditional stickers (they are larger and the user has no control over the animation) and will be sent automatically if the chosen emoji has an animated sticker available in the app — similar to what happens with the giant hearts on the platform.
WhatsApp animated stickers are built on Lottie, a file type for vector graphics animations. The optimized format allows you to create images with small animations that, being vector, can be resized without losing quality.
Compared to Telegram’s animated emojis, WhatsApp’s solution appears to be a bit more rudimentary. No hints of sending animations were found and the movement of the stickers seems to be much more rigid than the competitor’s — but it is worth remembering that this is a tool still under development at Zap.
As animations on the chat screen can be uncomfortable for some people, it is possible that Meta’s messenger will also prepare a configuration to disable the automatic reproduction of stickers. This, however, is just speculation.
Under development
For now, the animated emojis were found by WABetaInfo in an experimental version of the desktop app. If the idea goes forward, it should not take long for evidence to appear in versions for other platforms (Android and iOS). Naturally, there is no forecast for the definitive launch of the novelty.
Source: WABetaInfo
