How to Create and Customize Stickers with iOS 17

if there’s any feature I’ve used the most with iOS 17, it’s Stickers. The feature builds off of Visual Lookup in iOS 16, which gave you the ability to cut and copy a subject from a photo and then paste it into a conversation via Messages. Now, you can turn those images into stickers—complete with effects and animations. Making stickers is not only super fun (especially when you’re using silly photos of your friends), but it’s quick and easy too. Below, we break down how to create and customize your very own stickers.

For a full list of all the top features of Apple’s latest operating system, make sure to also check out our iOS 17 roundup.

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Choose Your Image

1. Open the Photos app on your iPhone or iPad and tap on the photo you’re looking for, so that it’s in full screen.
2. Long press on the subject until you see an outline appear around it.
3. On the pop-up menu, tap Live Sticker. From there, it’ll automatically be added to the Sticker drawer via your iPhone/iPad keyboard or Markup tools for future use.
4. If you want to use this specific Sticker only once (and don’t want to save it to your Sticker drawer), you can also tap on Share and send it via AirDrop, Messages, Mail, Notes, and more.

You can also turn Live Photos into Stickers by following the same steps. The only difference is that it will automatically be animated (depending on the movements of the Live Photo). You can, however, turn that off—which we explain below.

Pro Tip: If the photo has a lot going on in the background or around the subject you want to create a Sticker of, we recommend either cropping the photo or zooming in on the subject to make it easier to capture. Otherwise, your sticker will include additional details that you may not want.

You also have the option to create Stickers within the Messages app. This method is slightly easier because it will automatically outline the subject for you.

1. Open a text window within the Messages app.
2. Tap the Emoji icon.
3. Tap on the Stickers icon.
4. Tap on the “+” sign in the left-hand corner.
5. Choose the photo you want to create a sticker from and tap on it.
6. Tap on Add Sticker.