I love it when a message I send makes someone smile and catches them by surprise. I guess that's why I eventually got tired of sending the same emojis over and over again. They're fine, but after a while they stop feeling special.

I noticed some people using sticker packs instead, but they were always celebrities, movie characters or random memes. I remember thinking it would be much more fun if I was the sticker. Instead of sending, I'd send myself giving a thumbs up. Instead of saying "Hi", it'd be me waving. Same message, but somehow it feels completely different when it's actually you.

So I decided to make a few.

This was before AI, so I literally took photos of myself in different poses, removed the backgrounds by hand, and used different sticker maker apps for WhatsApp to build my own little pack. It took a huge amount of time. But the reactions made it worth it. Almost everyone noticed them immediately. I kept getting comments like, "Where did you get these?" and "I want my own stickers like that." A few friends even started using my stickers in their replies or dropping them into our group chats.

That was such a cool feeling.

The only downside was that making them was so much work that I ended up with maybe ten stickers, and after a while everyone had already seen all of them.

Then AI came along.

I tried using ChatGPT to make new stickers and the results were honestly amazing. Suddenly I could imagine myself as an astronaut, a scientist, a chef, or the chief of an African tribe... basically anything.

The problem was that turning a photo into a WhatsApp or Telegram sticker was still annoying. I had to save every image, remove the background, open another app, import everything... It worked, but it still felt like too many manual steps.

That's when I thought... why isn't there an AI WhatsApp sticker maker app that lets you create your own stickers?

So I built one for myself.

Now whenever I have a stupid idea, I just type it in and a few seconds later I have new personalized stickers ready for WhatsApp or Telegram. And sometimes the app comes up with funny ideas I never would have thought of myself, which is honestly one of my favorite parts. Sometimes it's me, sometimes it's someone I care about, sometimes it's someone's cat or dog. Those usually get even bigger reactions.

One thing I didn't expect is how much more personal conversations feel. Instead of another boring emoji, you're sending something that only the other person could receive because it's literally about them.

I think this works especially well when you care about someone who's far away. Sometimes you don't really have anything interesting to say, but sending a funny personalized sticker of yourself (or of them) somehow starts a conversation... or keeps one going.

I've attached a few examples of the kinds of stickers it can create because they're easier to show than describe.

I built the app mostly because I wanted this for myself, but now I'm curious whether other people would actually use something like this.

Do you think you'd actually use something like this to make your own stickers, or am I the only one who enjoys sending personalized stickers?

I turned myself into a custom WhatsApp sticker using AI, and it changed how I text