How to make a sticker from a photo on iPhone

Make a sticker in the Photos app

Apple added stickers made from your own photos in iOS 17. The company announced it in June 2023 as part of an all-new stickers experience in which you create Live Stickers by lifting subjects from photos, and released iOS 17 on September 18, 2023 as a free update for iPhone XS and later. If your phone runs iOS 17 or anything newer, the steps below are already built in.

1. Open the Photos app and tap a photo so it fills the screen.
2. Touch and hold the subject, the pet, person or object you want, then release. Apple's guide to lifting a subject says an outline appears around it when the lift has worked.
3. Tap Add Sticker. According to Apple's iPhone User Guide, the sticker then appears in your stickers menu, which you reach from the onscreen keyboard or from the Markup tools.

Add an effect: Outline, Comic, Puffy and Shiny

Once the sticker is made you can tap Add Effect. Apple's iPhone User Guide for iOS 17 and for iOS 18 gives Outline, Comic and Puffy as examples of the effects on offer. The current edition of the same page lists Outline and Comic as examples, and Apple's guide to stickers in Messages mentions Comic and Shiny.

Because the menu has shifted between versions, treat those names as a guide rather than a promise and look at what Add Effect shows on your own phone. Every list uses the words "such as", so none of them claims to be complete.

Turn a Live Photo into a moving sticker

Live Photos can become animated stickers. In Apple's steps for iOS 17 and iOS 18, you open the Live Photo, touch and hold the subject, slide it up until you see a duplicate of the subject, and then release it before tapping Add Sticker. The result is a sticker that moves.

If you would rather keep it still, the current version of Apple's guide notes that Add Effect also lets you turn the Live Photo animation on or off. A still sticker is often easier to read when it sits on top of a message bubble.

Make one without leaving Messages or the keyboard

You do not have to start in Photos. Apple's keyboard guide describes making a sticker while typing: tap a text field, switch to the emoji keyboard, open the sticker section, and search your photo library by typing a word or tapping a category such as People or Animals. Tap the photo you want, then tap Add Sticker, and it is added to your sticker collection.

Inside Messages, Apple's guide has you open a conversation, tap the plus button, choose Stickers and create a new one from a photo. From there you can drag a sticker onto a message bubble, turn it by rotating a second finger around the first, and resize it by moving that second finger closer or further away. Apple notes that you and the people you message need iOS 17.2, iPadOS 17.2, macOS 14.1, watchOS 10.2, visionOS 1 or later to see those updates to stickers.

Lifting a subject is not limited to the Photos app either. Apple says the same touch-and-hold works in Safari, Quick Look and more, and also on a paused video frame. When the outline appears you can copy the subject, drag it into another app with a second finger, share it, or add it as a sticker.

Why it isn't working: common mistakes

Tapping instead of holding. Every one of Apple's instructions says to touch and hold the subject, and Add Sticker is one of the options that appears once the outline does. If no outline shows up, hold a little longer on the subject itself rather than the background.

An older version of iOS. Making stickers from photos arrived with iOS 17. On iOS 16, Apple's guide to lifting a subject only offers Copy and Share, and says the feature works only on supported models. Check Settings for a software update before assuming something is broken.

A photo with no clear subject. Apple describes the feature as turning the main subject of a photo into a sticker. A wide landscape where nothing stands out may not give it an obvious subject to lift. One cat on a sofa or one cup on a table is a clearer target.

Looking for the sticker in the wrong place. The new sticker does not appear as a picture in your library. It lives in the stickers menu that you open from the keyboard or the Markup tools, and Apple says stickers sync through iCloud to your iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Vision Pro when they are signed in to the same Apple Account.

Not finding the delete option. Apple's steps for removing one: open a photo in Photos, open the editing and Markup tools, tap Add Sticker, then touch and hold the sticker you want gone and tap Remove.

Where your stickers end up

Apple built its stickers for decorating conversations, photos and notes, so they sit in a drawer and come out when you need them. That suits a quick reaction in a group chat. It is less satisfying if what you want is a collection you can look through, the way people used to keep stickers in a book.

SealPop is built for that second habit. You pick a photo, it cuts out the subject on your phone, adds a white die-cut border and turns it into a glossy, holo or matte sticker, and you place it wherever you like on the pages of a sticker book. When you are with a friend, you can each trade one sticker by scanning a QR code.

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