How to add stickers to WhatsApp on iPhone
WhatsApp comes with a few sticker packs of its own, but the good stuff is the stickers you add yourself: your friends' faces, your pet, or a meme pack that fits your group chat perfectly. On iPhone, WhatsApp adds third-party stickers through apps that support its sticker format.
holos is one of those apps. Here's how to get a pack into WhatsApp, whether you made it from your photos or picked it from the holos Market.
Step by step
Install WhatsApp and holos
You need WhatsApp on the same iPhone. Download holos from the App Store if you don't have it yet.
Get a pack
Make your own pack from photos with the + button, or open the Market tab, choose a pack and tap Get pack.
Open the export sheet
For a pack you made, open it in My Stickers and tap Export. For a Market pack, tap Send. The Send to sheet opens.
Choose WhatsApp
Tap WhatsApp (Add as a pack). holos prepares the stickers in WhatsApp's format and opens WhatsApp.
Tap Add to WhatsApp
WhatsApp shows a preview of the pack. Tap Add to WhatsApp to save it.
Send a sticker
Open any chat, tap the sticker icon in the message field and find your new pack in the sticker tray.
Making your own WhatsApp stickers
Ready-made packs are great, but stickers of your own people hit differently. In holos, tap +, choose Photo Library and pick up to 20 photos of friends, family or pets. holos cuts out each subject, adds a white outline and saves them as a pack. Tap Make them amazing to add captions with Text, then export the pack to WhatsApp the same way as above.
A good rule of thumb: make stickers of things your group already jokes about. The inside jokes are the ones that get sent every day.
WhatsApp's sticker rules
WhatsApp has a few rules for sticker packs, and holos handles them for you. A pack needs at least 3 stickers, so if WhatsApp shows Needs 3+ stickers, add a couple more first. A pack can hold up to 30 stickers. If yours is bigger, holos splits it into parts and you send them one by one.
Each sticker has to be small, so holos resizes and compresses it automatically. If a sticker is very detailed and still too big, holos tells you which one to simplify.
Animated stickers in WhatsApp
Animated packs stay animated in WhatsApp. WhatsApp packs are all animated or all still, so if you mix still and moving stickers, holos gives the still ones a gentle float to keep the pack together.
Tips
Update WhatsApp if the pack won't open: older versions don't accept third-party stickers.
Keep packs focused, like one per friend group or one per theme. A tidy tray is easier to use.
To send a single sticker without making a WhatsApp pack, export it with Copy and paste it into the chat.
Changed a sticker after adding the pack? Export the pack to WhatsApp again to add the new version.
Questions
Why can't I add stickers to WhatsApp from my iPhone?
Check that WhatsApp is installed and up to date, and that your pack has at least 3 stickers. If holos says Not installed, WhatsApp is missing from this iPhone.
Where do my stickers appear in WhatsApp?
In any chat, tap the sticker icon inside the message field. Your added packs are in the sticker tray.
Can I add more than 30 stickers to WhatsApp?
Not in one pack, since WhatsApp allows up to 30. holos splits bigger packs into parts that you add one after another.
Do the stickers work for the people I send them to?
Yes. Anyone in the chat sees the sticker, and they can tap it to save it to their own favourites.
