WhatsApp to soon let you create stickers using Gen AI

WhatsApp will soon let you create and send AI-generated stickers. At the Meta Connect 2023, founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company is beginning to roll out AI stickers across its suite of apps. That includes WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. All these apps will feature tools to edit, restyle, and co-create stickers with friends. Over the past few years, stickers have become an important part of online chats on instant messaging apps. With Gen AI, Meta is giving users more control over the feature by letting them create whatever they want as stickers.

Meta is using the technology from its large language model called Llama 2 and the foundational model for image generation called Emu for the new tool. The company said the upcoming AI tool will allow users to turn text prompts into multiple unique, high-quality stickers “in seconds.” You can ask the tool to generate images based on random requests such as a Hungarian sheepdog driving a 4×4 or a happy lamb sitting on a bicycle. As long as your requests for images do not violate the company’s terms of service, you will get multiple results for a single request.

Stickers, which the company said are shared in billions across its platforms every month, are most popular on WhatsApp. Currently, you can download premade stickers from different creators, recommended by WhatsApp, as well as create stickers from a photo. The ability to create stickers based on your imagination will add more value to chats, driving more engagement on the app. “AI is enabling new forms of connection and expression, thanks to the power of generative technologies,” said Meta in a blog post.

Meta is rolling out the AI tool to let you generate stickers over the next month to select English-language users in WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and Facebook Stories.