You thought convincing your friends to swap WhatsApp for Telegram or Signal would be the hardest thing about switching messaging apps. But then you realized you’d lose your precious sticker collection.

Only you don’t have to. Whether you walk on the iOS or Android side of the street, you can move all of your stickers from WhatsApp to Telegram or Signal. It’s slightly unintuitive, and will probably take a while if you have an iPhone, but at least you won’t have to throw years of sticker-collecting out the proverbial window. And then you can go ahead and delete WhatsApp without looking back.

3. Once you’re done, hit the three dots again, tap Move to, and select an easily accessible folder on your phone—we moved our stickers to the Downloads folder.

• Note: If you have a large number of stickers, it might be easier to move them to your laptop and import them to Telegram using the platform’s desktop client. To do that, you can use Android’s Nearby feature or transfer the files to your computer using a USB cable. You can also back up your stickers to a cloud service (like iCloud or Google Drive) that you can easily access through a web browser. Just remember that you’ll have to download them to a local folder on your computer before uploading them to Telegram. 

6. Upload your stickers as files. Tap the paper clip icon on the right of the message field and choose File. Use your device’s file explorer to get to the folder where you saved your stickers and send them to the bot—you can do this one by one or in bulk.  

7.  The sticker bot will ask you for one or two emojis that best describe your sticker. This will help it know what the sticker is about so it can recommend it when you’re messaging your friends. 

• Note: If you upload multiple stickers, you’ll only have to provide an emoji for the first one. This is less of a hassle, but it’ll hinder Telegram’s ability to provide accurate sticker recommendations in the future.  

9. Tap the URL and on the next screen finish by hitting Add stickers. They will be easily accessible every time you tap the sticker icon to the left of the message field.  

1. Open WhatsApp web in your browser and find a sticker you like in a chat. Right-click on it and choose Save image as to store the sticker as a WebP file. Repeat this step to save as many stickers as you want.

• Note: You won’t get the option to save the image on WhatsApp’s desktop client, so make sure you use the web interface on your browser. 

[Related: Emojis and reaction GIFs make Slack better. Here’s how to create them.]

2. Open Telegram in your browser and use the search feature in the left corner of your screen to summon the app’s official sticker bot.

3. Type /newpack into the message field and follow the instructions.

5. The sticker bot will ask you for one or two emojis that best describe your sticker. This will help it know what it’s about so that it can then recommend it to you when you’re messaging your friends. 

• Note: If you upload multiple stickers, you’ll only have to provide an emoji for the first one. This is less of a hassle, but it’ll hinder Telegram’s ability to provide accurate sticker recommendations in the future.  

6. When you’re done, type /publish. Telegram’s sticker bot will ask you to give a unique short name to your pack, which will serve to create a URL you can share with your contacts so they can also use your stickers.

How to export WhatsApp stickers to Signal 

Good news: Transferring WhatsApp stickers to Signal is a lot easier than moving them to Telegram. The key is using Signal’s desktop app. 

First, export your WhatsApp stickers as WebP files. How you do this will depend on your phone’s operating system. Click to skip directly to the steps for iPhone, or continue for the Android how-to:

On an Android phone

1. From the Files app, scroll down to Internal storage and follow this path: Android > Media > com.whatsapp > WhatsApp > Media > WhatsApp Stickers. There you’ll find WebP files with your personal collection of stickers and every single one you’ve ever received. Even the bad ones.

• Note: We tried this path on a Pixel 7 Pro, but there’s a lot of variation among Android phones, so the steps on your device might be slightly different depending on its manufacturer. 

3. Once you’re done, you’ll need to transfer the files to your computer. You have three options:

On an iPhone

1. Open WhatsApp web in your browser and find a sticker you like in a chat. Right-click on it and choose Save image as to store the sticker as a WebP file. Repeat this step to save as many stickers as you want.

• Note: You won’t get the option to save the image on WhatsApp’s desktop client, so make sure you use the web interface on your browser.

2. Continue below.

Upload your stickers to Signal

Once your stickers are saved to your computer, you can upload them to Signal. 

1. Open the Signal desktop app, go to File, and click Create/upload sticker pack.