How to Create Animated Emoji Stickers for Telegram: Formats, Specs & Tools

Telegram has one of the most sophisticated sticker systems of any messaging platform. You can create and share entire sticker packs, use custom emoji that appear inline in messages, and upload video stickers with full transparency. But the three different sticker formats, their distinct specifications, and the difference between stickers and custom emoji confuse most guides. Here's the real breakdown.

The Three Types of Telegram Stickers

According to Telegram's official sticker documentation, the platform supports three distinct sticker formats, each with different technical requirements and use cases.

TGS is Telegram's proprietary animated sticker format based on the Lottie animation library. These are the smooth, vector-based animations you see in official Telegram sticker packs—they look crisp at any size because they're mathematically defined rather than pixel-based. The tradeoff: creating TGS files requires vector animation software, which puts them out of reach for most casual creators.

Video stickers (WEBM with alpha channel) are more accessible—any video editor that can export WEBM with transparency can create them. The 256 KB limit and 3-second maximum duration keep file sizes manageable.

Custom Emoji vs. Sticker Packs: What's the Difference?

This is where most people get confused. Telegram has two separate concepts that are easy to conflate.

Sticker packs are collections of images sent as standalone messages. They appear at a large display size—roughly 200×200px or wider depending on chat width. They're what you "send" as a reaction or for fun. Custom emoji are different: they're small, inline replacements for standard emoji within text messages. They display at approximately 20–24px in chat, just like standard system emoji, but you can replace any emoji slot with your own custom illustration.

Custom emoji on Telegram are a Telegram Premium feature for senders, but anyone can see and react with them. The technical format requirements are similar (WebP or TGS), but the upload workflow and intended use case differ completely.

How to Create and Upload a Static Sticker Pack

Telegram's official sticker creation workflow uses the @Stickers bot. No third-party software required—everything happens inside Telegram itself.

1. 1.Open Telegram and start a chat with @Stickers
2. 2.Send /newpack to begin creating a new sticker pack
3. 3.Give your pack a name when prompted
4. 4.Send your sticker images as document files (not compressed images)—PNG with transparency or WebP, 512px on the longest side
5. 5.After each image, send the emoji that best represents that sticker
6. 6.Repeat for each sticker in your pack (up to 120 stickers per pack)
7. 7.Send /publish when all stickers are uploaded
8. 8.Give your pack a short URL-safe name—this becomes its link (t.me/addstickers/your_pack_name)
9. 9.Your pack is now public and shareable

Creating Animated WebP Stickers with AI

TGS animated stickers require Lottie and vector animation skills that are beyond most users. But Telegram also accepts animated WebP stickers, which are much more accessible. Here's the workflow using an AI emoji generator:

1. 1.Generate a custom emoji illustration using Forgemoji—the AI creates the image and automatically removes the background
2. 2.Click the Animate button that appears after generation
3. 3.Choose an animation style: Bounce (energetic), Float (smooth), Wiggle (playful), Pulse (rhythmic), Rubber (elastic), or Spin (dramatic)
4. 4.Select 512px size for sticker packs (or 128px for custom emoji)
5. 5.Export as WebP format
6. 6.Upload to @Stickers bot as a document file

The entire process from AI generation to uploaded sticker pack takes about five minutes. The result is a sticker pack with illustrations that exist nowhere else—your own original designs, animated, with full transparency.

Tips for Great Telegram Stickers

• •Simple, bold designs read best—complex details are lost even at sticker display sizes
• •Verify full transparency before uploading: partially-transparent edges create visible artifacts
• •For sticker packs, maintain consistent style and color palette across all stickers so the pack feels cohesive
• •Animate conservatively for stickers—a subtle bounce or float works better at large display sizes than an aggressive spin
• •Keep animations under 1.5 seconds for stickers that will be used frequently; longer loops feel sluggish in fast conversations
• •Test your stickers in an actual Telegram conversation before publishing the pack