How to Create Stickers App?

In today’s technological world, where people are becoming more tech-savvy, instant messaging is their first preference. Research shows, 75 percent of global internet users have downloaded mobile messaging apps on their smartphones.

Technology has introduced a new way for people to express themselves using stickers in their conversations. People like to use stickers in their conversations to make their content funny and engaging. People can send these stickers in a group conversation or a private chat. People now communicate with each other with more ease and fun. With the help of stickers, people can express their feelings in a way that they cannot express with words.

According to Statista, in the United States, 74 percent of people have used stickers and 35 percent of people use stickers in their conversations on a daily basis.

Image source: Statista

In this Retrocube blog, we will explain you a step-by-step guide and the main features of a stickers app to help you create your unique stickers app.

What is a Sticker App?

The stickers are in high demand and are common in every day communication. People use them more frequently because it’s fun and exciting.

A sticker app is a mobile application that you can download on your smartphones and use in your chat box during a conversation. A sticker app lets you send images in the form of a sticker. Whatever you are feeling- happy, sad, weird, wired or cuddly, you can send relevant stickers to your friends or family.

Why Create a Stickers App?

People use stickers to respond to specific situations with emotions and humor. Most businesses are choosing smart ways to communicate with their consumers and get their message across in a better way. Business people use stickers in their campaigns to keep a connection with their target audience. An online conversation with clients requires expressiveness through stickers. So it would be smart if you create your own sticker app.

Sticker apps are leading to a profitable business and are a way for brands to increase engagement with their customers. Consumers will download the stickers if they like the quality and graphics and send them to their friends and family. They will further download and share them and ultimately, the brand reach will also increase.

So if you are a brand and want to increase your audience base, what are you waiting for? Create your stickers app right now!

Read more to know about the reasons why your business needs a sticker application to increase your brand exposure.

Which Framework is the Best for a Sticker App?

Before developing a stickers app, let’s discuss the framework you should choose to create your application. There are different types of mobile application frameworks, which include:

• Native apps: these mobile apps are designed for specific mobile devices such as iOS or Android. An example is Overcast. This app is compatible with iOS only.
• Hybrid apps: these apps are built to run on different operating systems. An example of a hybrid application is Facebook that is compatible with several devices.

At Retrocube, we have previously discussed about the top frameworks to build mobile applications. Read more to get detailed information about choosing the right framework for your stickers app.

Main Features of the Stickers App

After having a clear understanding of the framework, start developing your stickers mobile application. In order to stand out from the competition, your app should have unique features. The users do not like a complex user interface. It must be simple and easy to use.

Here, we have listed down the steps to create a stickers app:

User Panel

Few main features are transparent to the user and the user has complete access to them. We have listed down a few must-haves of sticker app:

1-Add the Images

Images are the most common feature of a sticker app. Prepare your images. The background of images should be transparent to convert them into stickers. Reduce image sizes. Do not leave too much margin between the image and the outside edge of the picture frame.

2-Add Text

Incorporate this feature in your app to make it more innovative. Change the color of the text and add shadows to your existing text. By adding text functionality in your app, people will be able to create memes in the form of stickers.

3-Stickers Pack

It is the main feature of a sticker app. It contains sticker packets from different users. Compile a stickers pack and import sticker packs from other apps installed on the device.

4-Sticker Name

Give your stickers a name by specifying a value in the code. Users will be able to search for specific stickers easily. It can be done with the help of keywords. For instance, users can search “dance” and find the related sticker in your sticker packs.

5-Update the Icons

Add this feature in your app and give users access to update the icon’s name and color. They can set up the icons on the app according to their likes and preferences.

6-Touch Gesture

Nowadays, many smart sticker apps are incorporating this feature. Add touch gestures in your app so that users can zoom in, zoom out and drag stickers from one pack to another.

7-Import Stickers

This feature will import stickers from other files that were previously exported. Users will be able to import and download those stickers shared by their friends.

8-Search Bar

By adding a search bar in your app, users will be able to search their favorite stickers and users can add or remove them from the list of their favorites.

9-Social Media Sharing

Make your stickers popular with social media sharing. It will enable users to share stickers with their contacts and enjoy using a sticker app in their messaging apps.

10-Subscriptions

People who subscribe and agree to a payment plan can share their stickers on the app. Users will later download them and pay a fee before using these particular ones.

Additional User Panel Features

Following are a few additional features that you can include in your app to make it unique:

• Animated stickers
• Connection to the cloud server
• 3D stickers

Adding these features in your app would make it impressive and hence it is a great way to attract users.

Admin Panel

The sticker app has some features that are not transparent to the user. These features are only for administrators who can manage the app. Here are a few basic admin panel features:

1-Manage Payments

This feature gives admin access to manage the payments made by users for their subscriptions to the app. Admin will keep track of inflows and ensure every user pays before the subscription plan’s due date. If some users are unable to pay, the admin can block their access to few stickers which are not free.

2-View Dashboards

By incorporating this feature into the app, the admin can keep track of monthly earnings. There are graphs for revenue that are generated every month as well.

3-Add New Features

Admin will be able to add new stickers and update the app. Admin can also add new policies and update the old ones based on users’ requirements.

Step by Step Guide to Create Your Stickers App

So far, we have discussed the main features of the stickers app. Now let’s discuss the development process, from choosing the target audience to the maintenance of the app.

1-Select Your Target Audience

If you want to create your own stickers app, identify your target audience. The most frequent users of sticker apps are:

• People who want to express their feelings more brightly
• Shy people find it more convenient to send stickers instead of writing about their feelings
• Fans of greeting stickers such as New Year, Christmas and Valentine’s Day are people who will take this opportunity to use stickers to congratulate people

2-Research Thoroughly

Developing a sticker app requires thorough research and analysis. You need to understand what the target audience expects to get from your app and what kind of apps are already there in the app market. The research can be done by doing multiple surveys and interviewing representatives of the target audience.

3-Develop an Idea

When you have gathered enough information through research, it is time to develop an idea. In this phase, you will decide what features will make your stickers app different from the other competitions. An efficient way of doing this is to make a list of features that you want to add in your stickers app.

4-Hire a Sticker App Development Team

Hiring an efficient team of professionals for creating applications is the most crucial step in app development. Search about a team before investing your time and resources in it. Choose a team with strong communication skills so that it is easier for you to communicate with them about the new builds and deliveries of your app.

Code developers should be eager to show the progress of your project before the deadlines. A development team will build the front-end and back-end of your application from scratch according to your requirements. The front-end of your application is designed by UI and UX designers, while the back-end is implemented by back-end engineers who store information in databases using different frameworks.

We at Retrocube, provide our customers with top of the line services in mobile app development.

5-Integration with Messengers

Now integrate your stickers app with different messaging applications. This method is sometimes easy because some chat applications often provide open-source platforms, which makes it easy for developers to code and integrate the app’s features into those messaging apps. By doing this, your app will be available on popular instant messaging apps and get many users.

6-Security Problem

Security is the main aspect to consider during the development of your app. Any unauthorized access will make your app transparent to hackers and they will be able to access all the features without paying a fee or agreeing to any licenses. It can be due to insecure data storage, data leakages and weak server-side controls. Always make sure the final version of the app is secure from unauthorized access.

At Retrocube, we have predicted about cybersecurity in detail. Read further to get more information on the security issues of your app.

7-Testing Phase

After the front-end and back-end code is complete, your sticker application will go under the testing phase to detect errors and bugs. Following tests are performed by the quality assurance engineers in order to check the functionality of the application:

• Smoke testing: this type of testing is performed to make sure the initial builds of your sticker app are performing as intended.
• Sanity testing: it is performed to ensure the code changes are working properly and there is no error in the code.
• Regression testing: the code is modified and testing is done to look for any further bugs and errors.
• Performance testing: this testing is done to check the performance of your app. For instance, how much time the app is taking to load on different devices.
• Cross-browser testing: your stickers app is run on different browsers to check its functionality and appearance.
• User acceptance testing: it is done through a user along with the testing team. In this phase, testers test the app from a user’s perspective.

8-Maintenance and Customer Support

In this process, provide 24/7 customer support for consumers. Set up a maintenance team that makes updates whenever a new feature is added on the basis of customers’ requirements.

9-Publish Your Stickers App

After the testing phase, your sticker app is ready to go live on authentic app stores. For iOS users, make your stickers app available on Apple Store. Similarly, for Android users, upload it on Google Play Store. Once the app is uploaded on the app store, people can download it and use it on their mobile devices.

The Cost to Create a Stickers App

When it comes to mobile applications, the development cost depends on many factors. Studies show that an average sticker mobile application costs between $50,000-$60,000. On the other hand, a complex application can also cost up to $90,000 to $100,000.

The cost of developing a basic stickers app depends on factors including the functionalities, design, features, back-end structure, firm’s location and maintenance of the app.

Features’ Cost

The basic functionalities decide the cost of your sticker app. The cost depends on all the features from images, text, sticker packs to other features that we have described above.

Design Cost

A user interface is a crucial part of a sticker app. This feature provides the customer an easy to use interface, which is costly to implement, so if you want to create a unique user interface, then be ready to increase your budget.

Back-End Structure Cost

In back-end structuring, developers connect APIs to users’ databases and the cost depends on many factors, including user panel and admin panels.

Maintenance and Customer Support Cost

You should reserve almost 20-25% of your initial development cost for the maintenance of your application. Maintenance includes adding new features and fixing bugs in the existing code of your sticker app.

Similarly, customer support will provide users an option to ask queries regarding the app’s features and functionality. Reserve 10-15% of your project’s initial cost for providing customer support to your customers after delivering the app.

Wrapping Up

In today’s fast-paced world, we understand that technology is getting advanced with each passing day and people prefer smart ways to express themselves. Every day, people explore a new way to communicate with their friends and family. There is no perfect sticker app, but all the sticker apps available on app store include images, texts and options for users to create their own stickers, which is an efficient way to attract users and increase traffic on your app.

Finally, developing a basic sticker mobile application can be a complex process as it takes a lot of decision-making and planning, from platform selection through user input to the size of the interface. The coding part is also not an easy task to handle, but it can be done in the right way with teams of expert developers. Smart applications are everywhere these days and people use them to make their lives easier. People can download the sticker apps on their smartphones as well as access through browsers and enjoy using them.

Interested in Creating a Stickers App?
If you are looking to develop a sticker app, we are more than ready to help you! Our expert teams are highly skilled in developing a mobile application from lowest to highest level of complexity. At Retrocube, we hire qualified UI and UX designers who are able to create amazing sets of stickers. Our expert developers transfer the designs into a real-time application.

So, what are you waiting for? Get in touch with us now and set new trends in the app market with your unique product!