Two years later, Google Photographs could lastly achieve this cool iOS photograph trick (Replace: In testing)

Replace, November 25, 2025 (11:17 AM ET): After first recognizing proof for this new sticker characteristic being in improvement final week, we are able to now verify that it’s actively in restricted testing.

Some fortunate Pixel house owners like Reddit consumer Abishakenanda are already having access to the sticker-creation instrument. This seems to be a smaller check, no less than for now, and we’re not but seeing the characteristic broadly out there. Optimistically, although, Google ought to begin turning it on for extra accounts quickly.

Authentic article, November 20, 2025 (03:30 AM ET): When Apple launched iOS 17 about two years in the past, it added a characteristic that immediately garnered plenty of consideration. The characteristic allowed iPhone customers to faucet and maintain on any picture to pick out the topic and convert it right into a sticker that can be utilized throughout totally different messaging apps or used as a separate background-free picture. It turned an immediate hit, which prompted Android producers, together with Samsung, Xiaomi, and OnePlus, to comply with go well with and produce it to their respective photograph gallery apps.

In addition to these manufacturers, Google additionally applied an analogous performance in Photographs to make it extra broadly accessible, however restricted it to iOS customers on the time of its launch earlier this yr. On the sidelines, nonetheless, it has been testing the performance for Android customers and is now making progress towards making it a actuality.

We’ve encountered hints within the Photographs app on Android suggesting that Google could also be near bringing the sticker characteristic to the platform quickly. We have been in a position to tinker our means into enabling the perform in model 7.55 of the Google app on Android.

Right here’s a video of the characteristic we activated on Android. Observe that this has but to go reside for everybody:

Very like iOS, you possibly can faucet and maintain over the first topic in a photograph to pick out it. When Photographs detects the gesture, a shimmer seems round its define, suggesting that it has been chosen.

As soon as the topic is chosen, a Copy button seems routinely. If you faucet it, the picture generates a preview, simply as with a screenshot, and you’ll faucet it to crop or edit it. Alternatively, when you simply faucet copy however don’t edit the picture, it may be pasted into different apps utilizing Gboard’s clipboard performance — as long as you may have enabled it in your Android machine.

In contrast to iOS, nonetheless, these photographs don’t routinely get saved to sticker packs in your messaging apps, and will should be saved manually.

Moreover, we’ve found code that hints at different methods to save lots of the picture. The next strings counsel that the photographs will likely be saved underneath the Collections tab in Google Photographs.

Nonetheless, we don’t see the save performance working for the time being, suggesting Google should still want so as to add greater than ending touches earlier than transport it out to a broader viewers. We’ll replace as soon as that occurs.