WhatsApp: stickers for third-party keyboards, how it works

Sending stickers on WhatsApp via external keyboards will be easier, incoming updates: it starts from GBoard, the Google keyboard.

A new update for the stickers of WhatsApp is coming, one of the latest news most loved by users: now comes support for external third-party keyboards, with the ultimate goal to better integrate and provide more and more stickers to users of the popular instant messaging app.

Among the first GBoard supported keyboards, that of Google, which will allow the integration of stickers and other features, so as to facilitate the experience of users who prefer to type texts and messages by relying on external keyboards. How does it work? Here are all the news.

WhatsApp stickers on GBoard

The integration of stickers on GBoard has been enabled, for Android users, since December but this possibility has not yet been unlocked. WhatsApp has in fact chosen to enable the function to allow Google to work on it, and it is precisely because of these reasons for development that this upgrade is still blocked today in the official version (although it is present at the code level).

If you have updated GBoard to the latest version and have not yet found the new sticker specification, no errors: everything is still underway but it can be experienced by the same users by downloading GBoard Beta from the Google Play Store.

Once installed, and enabled as a reference keyboard, you can try out the new features (together with the latest version of WhatsApp Beta for Android).

GBoard offers inside a panel to send stickers to contacts: thanks to the new integration of stickers any sticker sent via WhatsApp from Gboard, especially those coming from third-party packages, is sent as an image and not as a sticker. Now, thanks to the new beta, every image sent through the special stickers button will be automatically converted and transformed into a compatible sticker (in webp format).

Here’s how the new section for stickers on GBoard will work (via WABetainfo)

The new feature will arrive in the coming weeks, GBoard will be the first keyboard to receive the update but in the coming months WhatsApp will enable the service to multiple keyboards, working on an ever-increasing system integration. GBoard is one of the most used external keyboards to chat and type via mobile: many people love the version made by Google, often preferring to the official version on the smartphone.

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