Common sticker mistakes (and how to avoid them)

Almost every failed pack comes down to a handful of repeat offenders. None of them are about the picture itself — they’re about size, format, and a couple of platform rules that aren’t obvious until a pack bounces.

A few KB over the size cap

This is the most common one. WhatsApp static stickers cap at 100 KB, Telegram at 512 KB, Signal at 300 KB. A picture that looks fine can sit just over the line because of a busy background. The fix is almost always to lower quality a notch or simplify the background — not to shrink the sticker. Our checker tells you the exact size before you try.

A GIF where the app only takes APNG

Discord’s uploader rejects GIF outright — animated stickers must be APNG. Telegram wants WebM (VP9) or TGS, not GIF either. Converting a GIF to the right format is a step people skip, and the upload just fails with an unhelpful message.

An “animated” export that’s a single frame

Exporting the first frame of an animation gives you a static image. It is not an animated sticker, even though it came from a moving source. If motion matters, make sure the export is an actual animated format within the platform’s length limit (3 seconds on Telegram and Signal, 5 on Discord, 10 on WhatsApp).

Signal: you need a computer, and it’s permanent

Signal packs can only be created in Signal Desktop — the old web creator is gone. Worse, once a pack is uploaded it cannot be edited or deleted. Get the stickers and emoji right before you upload, and don’t start on a phone expecting to finish there.

WhatsApp: updating a pack needs a re-export

After you change a pack, WhatsApp doesn’t sync it automatically. You have to re-export from the app for the changes to show up. Uninstalling and reinstalling is not the fix and can lose your packs — just re-export.

“Sharing a picture” isn’t “importing a pack”

Sending a single image to a chat shares a picture. It does not add a sticker pack. Importing a pack is a separate flow that goes through the app’s sticker system, and on WhatsApp that means the app has to be installed.

Telegram: pack names are global and permanent-ish

A Telegram pack’s short name is unique across all of Telegram, so common names are long gone. Packs created through a bot also carry a _by<bot> suffix in the name — that’s expected, not a bug.