WhatsApp Beta Now Lets You Create Group Icons with Emojis and Stickers

Nov. 12, 2021

After releasing WhatsApp beta 2.21.23.14 yesterday with the option tohide last seen from specific people, the developers at WhatsApp have released beta version 2.21.23.15 for Android today. And asfirst spottedby tipsterWABetaInfo, the update comes with anew feature that lets you use emojis and stickers as WhatsApp group profile pictures.

Set Emojis and Stickers as Group Icon on WhatsApp

If you are on WhatsApp beta 2.21.23.15 or newer, you cantap the pencil icon in the group icon screen to access the new ‘Emojis & stickers’ option. It is present between the existing ‘Gallery’ and ‘Search web’ options, as you can see in the image below:

You can then switch between emojis and stickers from the bottom bar.WhatsApp has also added a total of 11 pastel colors as the backgroundfor the emoji or sticker you will be using. You can pick one of the available colors from the color picker present below the profile picture preview.

Since WhatsApp doesn’t support animated profile pictures, you will get a static preview if you choose to use animated stickers. While the output is satisfactory for stickers, it looks a bit pixelated when you’re using emojis.

At this moment, the option to set emojis and stickers as the profile picture is limited to WhatsApp groups. Hence,you can’t use this to directly set your own WhatsApp profile picture. You could, however, choose to set an emoji or sticker profile picture to a group, save it to your gallery, and use that image as your profile picture if you really need it.

As is the case with all beta features, we will have to wait for WhatsApp to make this feature available in the stable version of the app. Is this feature something you see yourself using in your WhatsApp groups? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.

Subin writes about consumer tech, software, and security. He secretly misses the headphone jack while pretending he’s better off with the wireless freedom.