Stickers have taken over group chats. A well-made sticker of your dog, your friends, or a running inside joke is the social currency of 2026. Building your own pack is easier than you might think, especially once you have a good way to strip backgrounds from photos.
The general recipe
Both WhatsApp and iMessage use stickers in similar ways under the hood:
- A sticker is a small image with a transparent background
- Each sticker is usually 512 by 512 pixels
- File formats vary (WebP for WhatsApp, PNG for iMessage)
- Packs include a few dozen stickers and some metadata
That means the core creative work is the same: take a photo, remove the background, size it correctly, and publish it through a template app.
Picking good photos
Not every photo makes a good sticker. The best ones have:
- A clear subject filling most of the frame
- An expressive face, pose, or gesture
- Good lighting with strong contrast
- Enough resolution to stay sharp at small sizes
Avoid group photos with tiny subjects, dark indoor shots, and anything where the subject blends into the background. Five to ten great source photos will produce a useful sticker pack.
Step 1: Remove the backgrounds
This used to be the hardest part. Now it is the easiest. Drop each photo into rmv.bg and download the transparent PNG. If the photo has fine hair or fur, the AI preserves most of the detail, which is important at small sizes.
Step 2: Resize and pad
Most sticker platforms require a 512 by 512 canvas, but your subject does not need to fill the whole thing. Aim for the subject to take up 80 to 90 percent of the canvas with a small transparent margin around the outside.
- Open the transparent PNG in any editor
- Create a new square canvas at 512 by 512 with a transparent background
- Paste and center the subject
- Scale to roughly 90 percent width
- Export as PNG or WebP
If you prefer a no-code route, Canva has sticker-sized templates you can use.
Step 3: Add an outline for readability
Stickers are often placed on busy chat backgrounds. A white or bright outline around the subject dramatically improves readability:
- Duplicate your subject layer
- Add a 4 to 8 pixel white stroke around the edge of the duplicate
- Place the stroked copy behind the original
- Flatten and export
This one trick separates hobby stickers from the polished packs you see in big-brand stores.
Step 4: Publish to WhatsApp
For WhatsApp, you can use any "sticker maker" app on iOS or Android. The general flow is:
- Open the sticker maker
- Create a new pack
- Add 10 to 30 stickers
- Name the pack and add an icon
- Tap "Add to WhatsApp"
You can also use open source desktop tools if you prefer to build the pack yourself and side-load it.
Step 5: Publish to iMessage
iMessage sticker packs require a little more effort. You can either:
- Use a sticker-maker app from the App Store that bundles your stickers into an iMessage extension
- Or, if you are comfortable with Xcode, build a Sticker Pack app yourself and submit it to the App Store
Most people stick with the sticker-maker apps. They handle everything including submitting the pack on your behalf.
Tips for a great pack
- Build around a theme. A pack of your dog's expressions beats a random mix.
- Include reaction stickers like laughing, crying, shrugging, or thumbs up.
- Keep your sticker border consistent (all white, or all none) across the pack.
- Add a few text stickers with short phrases that your friends actually say.
Troubleshooting
If your stickers look blocky, you likely started with a low-resolution source photo. Scale down, not up. If the edges look too rough, try a different photo with better lighting and re-cut the background.
Once you have a cleanup workflow, you can build a new pack in an afternoon. Try running a few favorite photos through rmv.bg and see how quickly you can turn a camera roll into a sticker pack that actually lands in your group chats.