How to Create Stickers on iPhone: Everything You Need to Know

Creating stickers on iPhone has become surprisingly flexible — and the tools to do it are built right into iOS, no third-party app required. Whether you want to peel a subject out of a photo or build a full custom sticker pack, the process varies depending on your iPhone model, iOS version, and how you want to use them.

What "Creating a Sticker" Actually Means on iPhone

On iPhone, stickers aren't just pre-made emoji packs. Since iOS 17, Apple introduced a native sticker system that lets you:

• Lift subjects from photos to create custom image stickers
• Animate those stickers using Live Photos
• Organize them into packs accessible directly from the emoji keyboard

This is separate from the older concept of iMessage sticker apps, which required downloading third-party packs from the App Store. The newer system works natively across iMessage, and stickers created this way can be dropped into conversations just like emoji.

How to Create a Sticker by Lifting a Subject from a Photo 🎨

This method works on iPhone XS or later running iOS 17 or newer — that's the baseline requirement for subject-lifting in Photos.

Step-by-step:

1. Open the Photos app and find the image you want to use.
2. Press and hold on the main subject in the photo. You'll see a glowing outline appear around the subject as iOS isolates it from the background.
3. A pop-up menu will appear with the option "Add Sticker." Tap it.
4. The sticker is immediately saved to your personal sticker drawer in the emoji keyboard.

That's the core flow. The subject-detection algorithm is handled by the Neural Engine in Apple's A12 Bionic chip and later — which is why older devices don't support it.

Creating an Animated Sticker from a Live Photo

If the photo was captured as a Live Photo (indicated by the "LIVE" badge in the top corner), you get an extra option:

1. Follow the same steps above — press and hold the subject.
2. When the "Add Sticker" option appears, you'll also see "Add Animated Sticker."
3. The sticker will loop with the slight motion captured in the Live Photo.

Animated stickers tend to work best when the subject has a natural, subtle movement — a waving hand, a pet's head turn, steam rising. High-motion Live Photos can look choppy.

How to Access and Use Your Stickers in iMessage

Once created, stickers live in the emoji/sticker keyboard:

1. Open a Messages conversation.
2. Tap the smiley face icon (or the globe key) on your keyboard to open the emoji keyboard.
3. Tap the sticker icon (looks like a folded page corner) at the bottom.
4. Your custom stickers appear here alongside any iMessage sticker packs you've downloaded.

You can drag stickers directly onto message bubbles — not just into the text field. This lets you place them over photos or existing messages, which is a distinct feature from standard emoji use.

Managing and Organizing Your Sticker Collection

Stickers can be reordered, deleted, or grouped into packs:

• Long-press any sticker in the drawer to bring up edit options.
• Tap "Delete Sticker" to remove it, or "Move" to reorder within the collection.
• You can also add stickers to existing packs or create new custom packs.

One variable worth knowing: stickers sync across devices via iCloud if you have Messages in iCloud enabled. If you create stickers on one iPhone and later switch devices, this setting determines whether your collection travels with you.

The Older Method: iMessage Sticker Apps

Before iOS 17 changed the landscape, the primary way to get custom stickers was through iMessage apps — downloadable packs from the App Store that lived inside Messages.

This method still works and remains relevant for:

• Pre-made artistic sticker packs (branded, illustrated, themed collections)
• Devices running iOS 16 or earlier that don't support native subject-lifting
• Users who want stickers with text overlays, custom fonts, or drawn elements that the native photo-lifting tool can't produce

The App Store iMessage section is accessible directly from within the Messages app by tapping the App Store icon in the conversation toolbar.

Third-Party Apps That Expand Sticker Creation

For more control over design, several third-party apps let you create stickers from scratch:

Apps in this category typically let you export sticker packs in formats compatible with platforms beyond iMessage — something the native tool doesn't support.

Factors That Affect Your Sticker Creation Experience

A few variables meaningfully shape what's actually possible for any given user:

iPhone model: Subject-lifting requires an A12 Bionic chip minimum. Older iPhones can use iMessage sticker packs but can't use the native photo-to-sticker workflow.

iOS version: The unified sticker drawer and "Add Sticker" option are iOS 17+ features. On iOS 16, subject isolation exists in Photos but doesn't connect to the sticker system the same way.

Photo quality: The subject-detection algorithm works best with high-contrast subjects against distinct backgrounds. Busy or blurry backgrounds produce less clean cutouts.

Live Photo settings: If you've disabled Live Photos as a default in your Camera settings, you won't be able to create animated stickers without changing that setting — or going back to older photos captured with Live Photos on.

Use case beyond iMessage: The native sticker system is designed specifically for Apple's Messages app. If you need stickers for WhatsApp, Telegram, or social platforms, the workflow and tools are entirely different.

How well any of these methods work in practice depends heavily on which of these variables applies to your specific device, iOS version, and where you actually want to use the stickers you create.