Telegram stickers are a universe of their own, with people having whole conversations in great graphics, junk memes or movie quotes. And it's only possible because Telegram allows you to do Your own.
The best thing to do is that you don't have to have a developer account or go through a long and painful review. You simply send images to a bot and that's it.
So, if you have intended to do something with all the jokes that you and your work friends have accumulated, follow this guide that explains how to make your own Telegram stickers.
First step: design your stickers
It is not necessary to be a graphic designer to create Telegram stickers. If so, that's great. Another free way to promote your art. But if you're not, don't let that stop you. Some of the best Telegram stickers are funny creations similar to memes, grouped from quotes and photos. Your basic design skills will be enough to achieve it.
The stickers you create must meet unified design requirements. Those are super simple:
- Telegram stickers must be PNG images with a transparent background, 512 × 512 pixels.
- Each sticker must be a separate image file. Designing and loading them is easier on the desktop than on the mobile, so you may want to use Telegram for Mac, Telegram for Windows or Telegram Web.
- The icon of your sticker pack is optional. If you want to have one, design a 100 × 100 PNG image with a transparent layer.
It is important to understand that using things like movie quotes to create your stickers is a copyright infringement. Yes, that's exactly how memes are made, but unlike a meme, your designs are likely to be removed from Telegram if the copyright owner complains. That said, there seems to be no copyright verification when loading your designs.
The average Telegram package includes 10 to 20 stickers, but you are not limited in the amount you wish to charge. Some packages have more than 100 stickers, and you can keep coming back and adding new ones, even after posting.
Second step: find the Telegram sticker bot
Once your own Telegram designs are ready to roll, look for the Telegram sticker bot. Open Telegram and type "stickers" in the search field. Click on the chat and you will see the list of commands you can use:
/ newpack to create a new Telegram sticker pack.
/ addsticker to add a sticker to an existing package.
/ delsticker to remove a sticker from a package.
/ ordersticker to reorder stickers in a package.
/ stats to get usage statistics for a specific sticker.
/ top to see the best stickers in your package.
/ packstats to obtain usage statistics for a design package.
/ packtop to see your best packages.
/ cancel to cancel any command you just used.
Click Start to open the chat and start setting up your design package.
Third step: upload them to Telegram
This Telegram bot makes it easy to upload and publish your designs. This is what you should do:
- Type the / newpack command and press Enter.
- The bot will ask you for the name of your package. Write the name and send it.
- Now, click on the File icon, to load your first sticker. It is important that you upload it as a file, not as a photo. If you use the camera icon, the bot will reject the image.
- The bot will ask you to assign an emoji to your sticker. Choose an emoji that best matches the sticker and press Enter to send it. You can assign some, but Telegram recommends no more than two emojis per design.
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each Telegram sticker you wish to add.
- When you're done, type the / publish command and send it.
- If you want to add an icon to your package, upload it as if you had uploaded the rest of the images and send it to the bot. If you don't have an icon, simply send the / skip command, and your first sticker will become an icon for this package.
- Finally, send the bot a short name so that your sticker pack is used in your URL.
And that's it! Click on the link to your Telegram sticker pack to see how everything looks. If you have more than 10, you can scroll through them.
Start sending them by Telegram
Telegram does not have a sticker store or any other way for people to explore all existing ones. This means that your package will accumulate dust until you and your friends begin to send the stickers.
When you click on the URL of your package, you will see two ways to start sharing them on Telegram.
Share: This will forward the link in your package to a contact or Telegram group of your choice.
Add stickers: this will add the package to your collection, so you can send individual stickers to your Telegram contacts. Your friends can see and add the package by touching the label you sent. This is how they spread.
More reasons to start using Telegram
The stickers alone would be enough to get rid of other messaging applications, in favor of Telegram. But there are more reasons why Telegram is the only application you need.
From secret chats to the ability to correct typographical errors in messages you have already sent, Telegram has tons of features that you will probably use.
Take the Telegram bots, for example. These simple assistants can help you with almost anything, there is even a bot that reminds you to straighten your back every 30 minutes.