Stickers Are the New Emoji

You may have noticed an explosion of stickers on major social networking platforms and messaging apps.

If you’re new to stickers, they’re basically big bold graphics used like emojis. What makes stickers different from Emojis is that they don’t need to represent a pre determined list of symbols because they’re not part of the unicode standard.

Emojis vs. stickers: what’s the difference?

“Emoji sets must have assets made for each icon,” says Kate, a content specialist for Envato. “They work a bit like an alphabet.”

For example, all emoji icon sets have a smiling face with smiling eyes icon. The icon is part of a standard set and has specific design requirements, such as the closed mouth and eyes.

Left to right, top to bottom. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and Messenger. (source – emojipedia.org.)

Stickers on the other hand are included as part of messaging apps and work like reaction images. Stickers can represent a range of concepts and can include text and animations.

Stickers > Emojis

But are stickers really ‘the new emoji’? Check out this ad from Apple to highlight the iPhone 7, which encourages you to say it with stickers:

We might be behind in identifying this trend. According to Slate, emojis haven’t been cool in Japan since 2015 – the same year that emojis were making their way to the White House in the United States:

“Today is also a chance for Americans, especially our young people, to say thank you for all the things we love from Japan. Like karate and karaoke. Manga and anime. And, of course, emojis.” – President Obama, 2015 address

In other markets, messaging apps also demonstrate the popularity of stickers. In Thailand, the set of bear stickers for Line, a popular messaging app, have inspired backpacks, toys, and more. In China, Tukzi (a rabbit character) is the default sticker set.

Line bear sticker set. Image: trutower.com

“Stickers are different to Emojis because there’s a focus on character or conversation theme and not just the facial expression,” says Kate. Unlike emojis, stickers can include props and text.