Google Photos is rolling out support for making custom stickers from your photos, but it only works on iOS with seemingly no plans to bring it to Android.
If you open up certain photos in your Google Photos library on iOS, you might notice the ability to turn those photos into a sticker by removing the background. A ring around the photo subject will appear after a second or two, indicating that you can use the photo to make a sticker. After that, you can either copy it to your clipboard or share it to another app.
On a support page, Google notes that you should “choose photos with a subject that’s clearly defined in the foreground” for the best results. After stickers are created, they cannot be modified.
Google explains the process as follows:
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On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app. Select a photo. A shimmer effect outlines the subject of the photo that can be turned into a sticker. Press and hold the subject to create a sticker. Select an action: To copy the sticker: Tap Copy .
Tap . To share the sticker: Tap Share. Tip: You can paste or share stickers directly into apps like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messages.
The same page notes that you’ll need iOS 17 and up and, if you’re on Android, you’re out of luck.
This is clearly a move to ease friction between the Google Photos app on iOS and the main iOS Photos app, which has had a sticker creation option like this for a while now. But, by that same logic, it’s hard to see why Android isn’t getting this, as Samsung added the same functionality a few years ago. Hopefully, Android will get this in time.
More on Google Photos:
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