How to Use Emojis and Stickers in WeChat?

WeChat is an amazing app that combines the social and financial needs of users. Though it is mainly used in mainland China, the popularity is growing across the countries. Similar to other platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, WeChat also allows using emojis and stickers in chat conversation and Moments.

Related: WeChat Pay guide for foreigners.

1. Emojis in Chat Conversation

When you are in chat conversation with individual or group, press the smiley icon that shows next to the input text box. This will open up the emoji keyboard with lots of option and icons.

• Select the icon you like to send.
• Swipe left to find more emojis symbols.
• Swiping right to the end will show you the recently used icons.
• Press and hold the icon to view in an enlarged pop-up.

When sending emojis, the selected symbol will show in the input text box as a colorful emoji. Press “Send” button to send it to the recipient(s). However, this is different with custom and selfie stickers which will be sent to the receiver with single tap.

Note that the notifications will show the emoji shortcode instead of the symbol. In addition to selecting emojis manually, WeChat also allows to filter when typing. For example, you can see all laughing face smileys when you type the word “laugh” in the input text box.  

2. Sending Custom Stickers

After pressing the smiley icon, you can see lots of option in the bottom of the emoji keyboard. Press the heart icon to go to the custom stickers section. Custom sticker option allows you to select the stickers and images from your photo library and send in the chat. You will see few default custom stickers and tap on the + icon to go to manage section.

When in manage section again press the + icon to select the picture from your photo album.

You can view the sticker and add to your custom sticker library to send in chat anytime. This is a similar option like sending a photo from the album in chat. However, the different is that you can view the custom stickers in the gallery and manage them in one place. In addition, you can also insert the custom stickers on your selfie stickers as explain below.

Related: How to do money transfer in WeChat?

3. Sending Selfie Stickers

After pressing the smiley icon, tap on the two fingers icon to open selfie sticker section.

Tap on the camera icon to open your phone’s camera and take your selfie picture. Hold the record button until the circle complete with green progress bar to take selfie shot. You can do the following with your selfie picture:      

• Add caption with different colors.
• Remove or show the background.
• Show the motion in fast forward mode.
• Paste custom stickers on selfie.

After finishing the touchup work, tap on “Add” button to include the selfie GIF sticker into your sticker gallery. If you are not happy, retake the shot and create a new selfie sticker. You can view all selfie tickers in the gallery section and send whenever you want. The selfie stickers will be available across all your devices when using the same WeChat account.

Note that the receiver will see a selfie stickers notice under the received picture in the chat.

4. Download Sticker Sets

After pressing the smiley icon, tap on the + icon on the left corner of the keyboard. This will take you to the sticker library where you can find free and premium pre-made stickers from third-party developers.

You can view the stickers downloaded by your friends and all available stickers for WeChat. Generally, you will see most of the stickers with Chinese text though it is easy to understand. Tap on any sticker to view all the collections.

• You can press and hold to view each sticker in an enlarged preview mode.
• Tap “Add” button to include the stickers in your WeChat account.
• You can also view all the stickers from the developer and the details of how many people are using that collection.
• If you are willing, tap on the “Reward” button to send donation to the developer.

After adding the sticker collection, you can view all added collections at the bottom of your emoji keyboard. Tap on the icon on the bottom of the keyboard to view that sticker collection. You can preview the animation and send in single tap.

5. Managing Stickers in WeChat

Tap on the gear icon at the right corner to view the available stickers on your WeChat account. The order is fixed for emojis, custom and then selfie stickers. All downloaded sticker sets will show after the selfie sticker icon. However, you can reorder the downloaded sets by tapping on “Reorder” option and changing the position up or down.

You can delete custom, selfie and downloaded sticker sets anytime when you do not need them.

WeChat also allows you to view download sticker sets through “Me > Sticker Gallery” menu.

6. Sending Emojis in Moments

Go to “Discover > Moments” to view the timeline of posts from your friends. When creating a post or commenting on other’s posts, you can insert emojis by tapping and selecting the icon. However, you can only send emojis in the moment and not the stickers.

7. Using Custom Keyboard for WeChat

As you have noticed, though WeChat has different emoji and sticker options, it still uses the default phone’s keyboard. This helps you to send additional Unicode emojis available on your iOS or Android phone’s emoji keyboard.

In case, if you do not like the default keyboard search for custom keyboard in your app store. These custom keyboard apps will help you to customize and change the keyboard layout across all applications on your phone. For example, “Gboard – the Google Keyboard” is an app from Google to quickly find and insert GIF and emojis in conversations.