A sticker is a detailed illustration of a character that represents an emotion or action that is a mix of cartoons and Japanese smiley-like "emojis" sent through instant messaging platforms. They have more variety than emoticons and have a basis from internet "reaction face" culture due to their ability to portray body language with a facial reaction. Stickers are elaborate, character-driven emoticons and give people a lightweight means to communicate through kooky animations. [1]
Stickers were first popularized by the Korean-developed mobile messaging app Line. Naver developed the app with the Japanese market in mind, as KakaoTalk was already the dominant mobile messaging service in South Korea. The stickers' blend of the ubiquitous emoji system with anime-styled artwork, and their use as a substitute for typing out longer messages in Japanese text, helped the feature appeal to Japanese audiences. As Line's dominance grew, the mascot characters featured within Line's sticker sets also became popular as merchandise. [2]
In 2013, stickers began to expand beyond Asian markets: Path added stickers in March 2013 as part of its new private messaging system, [3] followed by Facebook's main and Facebook Messenger mobile apps in April. In July, sticker functionality was extended to Facebook's web interface, [4] [5] while Kik Messenger also added stickers. [6] Startup companies devoted to stickers also emerged, helping produce them on behalf of brands as part of advertising campaigns. [7]
By November 2013, a survey of mobile messaging users found that 40% of those surveyed used stickers on a daily basis, with Indonesians showing the highest amount of daily usage (46%), followed by China (43%), South Korea (38%) and the United States (35%). Out of those who did regularly use stickers, 20% had paid for stickers or emoji in mobile messaging apps at least once. [8]
In 2016, Snapchat acquired Bitstrips for its app Bitmoji, which allows users to create custom stickers featuring a personal avatar. [9] [10] [11]
In July 2019, Telegram introduced animated stickers, using a new format .tgs, with support for third-party sticker packs. [12] A year later, in July 2020, WhatsApp implemented animated stickers with several official packs. [13] In June 2021, Discord added the capability for premium users to use animated stickers. [14]
In September 2023, Instagram and Facebook Messenger introduced the ability to add AI-generated stickers. [15] Within a week, there were reports of people issuing inappropriate prompts involving celebrities or copyrighted characters, such as Elmo holding a knife. [16]
Stickers are commonly downloadable for free, but some services may offer premium options via microtransactions, often described as stickers as a service. Sets may be devoted to specific themes, characters, as well as popular brands and media franchises such as Hello Kitty, Psy, and the Minions of Despicable Me . [1] [17]
Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing immediate transmission of messages over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and triggers a transmission to the recipient(s), who are all connected on a common network. It differs from email in that conversations over instant messaging happen in real-time. Most modern IM applications use push technology and also add other features such as emojis, file transfer, chatbots, voice over IP, or video chat capabilities.
An emoji is a pictogram, logogram, ideogram, or smiley embedded in text and used in electronic messages and web pages. The primary function of modern emoji is to fill in emotional cues otherwise missing from typed conversation as well as to replace words as part of a logographic system. Emoji exist in various genres, including facial expressions, expressions, activity, food and drinks, celebrations, flags, objects, symbols, places, types of weather, animals and nature.
The landscape for instant messaging involves cross-platform instant messaging clients that can handle one or multiple protocols. Clients that use the same protocol can typically federate and talk to one another. The following table compares general and technical information for cross-platform instant messaging clients in active development, each of which have their own article that provide further information.
Meebo was an instant messaging and social networking service provider. It was founded in September 2005 by Sandy Jen, Seth Sternberg, and Elaine Wherry, and was based in Mountain View, California. Initially the company offered a web-based instant messenger service, extending its offer in more general online chat and even social networking directions. In June 2012, Google acquired Meebo to merge the company's staff with the Google+ developers team.
BBM, also known by its full name BlackBerry Messenger, was a consumer-oriented proprietary mobile instant messenger and videotelephony application service originally developed by BlackBerry Limited and later briefly by Indonesian company Emtek under licence. Initially it was included and offered on BlackBerry devices before it was expanded cross-platform. BBM was shut down on 31 May 2019; the company since continues to offer the paid enterprise edition, BBM Enterprise.
Facebook is a social networking service originally launched as TheFacebook on February 4, 2004, before changing its name to simply Facebook in August 2005. It was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his college roommates and fellow Harvard University students, in particular Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. The website's membership was initially limited by the founders to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and gradually most universities in the United States and Canada, corporations, and by September 2006, to everyone with a valid email address along with an age requirement of being 13 or older.
Kik Messenger, commonly called Kik, is a freeware instant messaging mobile app from the Canadian company Kik Interactive, available on iOS and Android operating systems.
Messenger, also known as Facebook Messenger, is an American proprietary instant messaging app and platform developed by Meta Platforms. Originally developed as Facebook Chat in 2008, the company revamped its messaging service in 2010, released standalone iOS and Android apps in 2011, and released standalone Facebook Portal hardware for Messenger calling in 2018. In April 2015, Facebook launched a dedicated website interface, Messenger.com, and separated the messaging functionality from the main Facebook app, allowing users to use the web interface or download one of the standalone apps. In April 2020, Facebook released a Messenger desktop app for Windows and macOS.
Line is a freeware app for instant communications on electronic devices operated by LY Corporation. Line users exchange: texts, images, video and audio and conduct free VoIP conversations and video conferences. In addition, Line is a platform providing various services including: digital wallet as Line Pay, news stream as LINE Today, video on demand as Line TV and digital comic distribution as Line Manga and Line Webtoon.
Snapchat is an American multimedia instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before they become inaccessible to their recipients. The app has evolved from originally focusing on person-to-person photo sharing to presently featuring users' "Stories" of 24 hours of chronological content, along with "Discover", letting brands show ad-supported short-form content. It also allows users to store photos in a password-protected area called "my eyes only". It has also reportedly incorporated limited use of end-to-end encryption, with plans to broaden its use in the future.
Bitstrips was a media and technology company based in Toronto, Canada, and founded in 2007 by Jacob Blackstock, David Kennedy, Shahan Panth, Dorian Baldwin, and Jesse Brown. The company's web application, Bitstrips.com, allowed users to create comic strips using personalized avatars, and preset templates and poses. Brown and Blackstock explained that the service was meant to enable self-expression without the need to have artistic skills. Bitstrips was first presented in 2008 at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, and the service later piloted and launched a version designed for use as educational software. The service achieved increasing prominence following the launch of versions for Facebook and mobile platforms.
Giphy, styled as GIPHY, is an American online database and search engine that allows users to search for and share animated GIF files.
Hike Messenger, also known as Hike Sticker Chat, was a multifunctional Indian freeware application offering cross-platform instant messaging (IM) and Voice over IP (VoIP) services that was launched on December 12, 2012, by Kavin Bharti Mittal and is now owned by Hike Private Limited. Hike functioned offline through SMS. The app registration used a standard one-time password (OTP) based authentication process. Hike was estimated to be worth $1.4 billion and had more than 100 million registered users.
The following is a timeline of the history of the photo messaging software Snapchat.
Stickers as a service (SaaS) is a category of cloud computing services that provides digital stickers to messaging apps and photo editing software.
Looksery is an American software and photography company founded in 2013 by Victor Shaburov and Yurii Monastyrshin. The company is based in San Francisco and owned by Snap Inc. The company developed the Looksery application that does facial modification of photos in real time on mobile platforms.
Facebook Stories are short user-generated photo or video collections that can be uploaded to the user's Facebook. Facebook Stories were created on March 28, 2017. They are considered a second news feed for the social media website. It is focused around Facebook's in-app camera which allows users to add fun filters and Snapchat-like lenses to their content as well as add visual geolocation tags to their photos and videos. The content is able to be posted publicly on the Facebook app for only 24 hours or can be sent as a direct message to a Facebook friend.
MessageMe was a messaging app and platform for the iPhone and Android. It launched in March 2013 and grew to 5 million users within 3 months. The app allowed users to send and receive videos, photos, stickers, and voice messages in addition to text.
Comparison of user features of messaging platforms refers to a comparison of all the various user features of various electronic instant messaging platforms. This includes a wide variety of resources; it includes standalone apps, platforms within websites, computer software, and various internal functions available on specific devices, such as iMessage for iPhones.