6 ms·

Show HN: I made an app to draw stickers for iMessage, Discord, and Slack

185 points by jazzychad 5y ago

pimlottc 5y ago
Wow, very polished! The UX looks and feels great. The 3D sticker effect is really cool and fun. The first time hints are effective and it’s really easy and quick to start making real stickers. Kudos! A few bits of feedback: - after zooming in photo mode, I naturally tried to pan to get my object in view, but that quickly created a path and then immediately went into the save screen, which was jarring. I know it tells you to try but panning and zooming is just second nature. Maybe show a message if the path drawing time is very short? - tracing a photo is harder than the demo makes it look! The zoom view is very helpful here but it is still a very painstaking process, and if you mess up, you have to start over. I was hoping that it would use my path as a start and automatically refine it but nope. - if the photo path starts in the upper left, the zoom is blocked. Perhaps you can move it automatically if needed. - took me a moment to figure out how to copy a sticker for use in Signal. I expected to be able to long press on the sticker and get a context menu, but that doesn’t work. You have to go to “options” which is not immediately obvious. Also, having to pick a image size is not something most users want to think about, they just want to copy and paste like text.
- jazzychad 5y ago
  Thanks for the kind words and feedback! Yeah, the photo tracing experience is the most contentious part of the app. Lots of similar feedback from lots of people. I will be improving that in the coming updates. The zoom/pan is definitely tricky b/c it conflicts with the drawing gesture, so panning isn't the easiest thing to accomplish. Again, planning to rethink how to make that better. You should be able to long-press a sticker in the main view and get the same options menu for copying/etc.... does that work for you? I'm also planning on supporting other messaging services like WhatsApp, Signal, Telegraph, etc...
  - pimlottc 5y ago
    > You should be able to long-press a sticker in the main view and get the same options menu for copying/etc.... does that work for you? Ah, you’re right, it does work in the gallery view, just not in the detail view where you end up after creating the sticker.
doomrobo 5y ago
Looks very cool! I'm surprised Apple hasn't done this yet. I predict this will either be shut down or bought.
_understood_ 5y ago
TAKE MY $2.00!!!
mft_ 5y ago
Only a 5.3MB download for the whole app? Bravo!
- jazzychad 5y ago
  Thanks! I worked pretty hard to keep out all the cruft that lots of apps seem to have now. I wanted it to be used all around the world, so I wanted to be respectful of everyone's data limits and ensure it could be easily downloaded by as many people as possible.
cantoni 5y ago
This is really fun to play with, and people love getting custom stickers.
charlietran 5y ago
This is excellent! There used to be a similar app called "Sticky AI", but the company abandoned it after a while and the backend for the app shut down. This works great and has no external dependencies.
jazzychad 5y ago
Hi HN, I hope you will enjoy this app. I was inspired to make it because my daughter likes to make little doodles on my iPad, and I thought it would be fun to add a "sticker" effect so they stand out better against a solid background... then I thought it would be fun to turn it into a Messages sticker app; next thing you know Sticker Doodle was born. I launched the app with translations in English, Spanish, German, Italian, Arabic, Japanese, and Chinese. Everything is stored and sync'd with iCloud, and there is full support for dynamic text sizes and light/dark mode. I took great care to make it an app everyone around the world could use and enjoy. I'm happy to answer questions or take feedback! Lots of features and updates already added to the todo list :)
- exportsmedia 5y ago
  When I sent the sticker to another device it showed up as a broken thumbnail, is there something else I need to do to make the sticker show up on the divide I send it to?
  - jazzychad 5y ago
    hmm, is it possible to send me a screenshot of the other device (to the email in my profile)? it could be a couple different things happening, easier to diagnose if I can see.
- mrlagmer 5y ago
  Very cool app. My kids will love this. I will be unlocking it for them nice work on the family sharing.
- lloydatkinson 5y ago
  Would it support Messenger?
  - jazzychad 5y ago
    FB Messenger doesn't support custom stickers (that I'm aware of). If it does, please let me know!
dudus 5y ago
Are stickers the new Emojis? Every app seem to have a slightly different implementation and they don't really interoperate well. Can this tool be used for WhatsApp stickers? And how different are Slack and Discord Stickers? I wonder if we'll see some standardization in the future akin to the addition of emojis to Unicode.
- okdjnfweonfe 5y ago
  stickers are the half-way point between images and emoji, as in, bigger emoji, usually sent without a message. Some platforms upgrade emoji to stickers when used solo (telegram for example) there isn't anything majorly special about them on any platform AFAIK
- zaik 5y ago
  https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0449.html https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0449.html Now we just have to wait until people leave walled gardens like Slack and Discord and start using the Internet standard for IM.
  - dudus 5y ago
    So it's basically a XML file that defines sticker packs and stickers as png files. No notes on size constraints, image formats, installation, distribution, sharing across apps. Seems like an early stage standard.
- blengert 5y ago
  In case you are interested in adding WhatsApp sticker support, here is the link to the client side code for iOS: https://github.com/WhatsApp/stickers/blob/main/iOS/README.md https://github.com/WhatsApp/stickers/blob/main/iOS/README.md
- mafriese 5y ago
  I think the problem with emojis is that everyone has the same options to pick from - if you have stickers you can express yourself in a way that fits more your own style(?)
- 5y ago
werber 5y ago
I would love to be able to make stickers on my iPad and use them on my iPhone. But even without the pencil my first sticker looks terrific! Great job on this!!
- jazzychad 5y ago
  This should certainly work already if your iPad and iPhone are logged in to the same iCloud account. The stickers should sync automatically when you launch the app on the other device. Please let me know if it's not working for you!
laosb 5y ago
As a user since your beta on Airport: Congratulations for making it on App Store! Just to let you know that Telegram has client-side API (and SDK) for creating sticker packs - hope you can support it!
- laosb 5y ago
  Er forgot the link to doc: https://core.telegram.org/import-stickers https://core.telegram.org/import-stickers
- jazzychad 5y ago
  Great, thank you! I will look at the Telegram API/SDK.
kinduff 5y ago
The press kit made me lol, specially the image you picked for yourself. Great job on the app!
- easton 5y ago
  Whoa! I watched that WWDC session. Is there a story behind the Newton?
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
pgib 5y ago
This is great! If I create a sticker on one device, will it sync via iCloud to my other devices?
- mafriese 5y ago
  yep
arittr 5y ago
As great as the feature is (and I've always wanted to be able to easily create Stickers) the best thing about this is the obvious love and care that went into the app. 10/10. Inspiring to see a "hobby" project at this level of polish. Thank you.
2muchcoffeeman 5y ago
I wish I thought of this. Then I could quit my job.
sintezcs 5y ago
A great app! But why Telegram is not supported? It’s one of the most popular messages nowadays
mafriese 5y ago
Your app feels really clean! I like the dropping buttons when you want to delete a sticker and the sticker effect when you view a sticker and you pull it up or down. iCloud Sync also works like a charm! Hope you manage to get Whatsapp support in the near future ;)
owly 5y ago
You sir, have a HIT! $2 is a steal for this. One question, what is the app icon supposed to be? I think a kids smiley face or the cat example would make for a better impression.
_understood_ 5y ago
Nicely done! Feature request: folder or hidden compartment/sticker(s) option? It seems as if my only artistic contribution to the world will be in the shape of poorly drawn phallic scribbles. (which I have a plan to leverage via iMessage with my wife and fantasy football group text thread) However, I would like to prevent the awkward conversation with my 6 year old if possible about the "cool drawing" daddy keeps making and texting. ;)
shadowsock 5y ago
Looks super polished! Is there a mac app coming? I started a project similar to this for mac https://github.com/tmprk/Stickers-macOS https://github.com/tmprk/Stickers-macOS

185 points by jazzychad 5y ago

Wow, very polished! The UX looks and feels great. The 3D sticker effect is really cool and fun. The first time hints are effective and it’s really easy and quick to start making real stickers. Kudos! A few bits of feedback: - after zooming in photo mode, I naturally tried to pan to get my object in view, but that quickly created a path and then immediately went into the save screen, which was jarring. I know it tells you to try but panning and zooming is just second nature. Maybe show a message if the path drawing time is very short? - tracing a photo is harder than the demo makes it look! The zoom view is very helpful here but it is still a very painstaking process, and if you mess up, you have to start over. I was hoping that it would use my path as a start and automatically refine it but nope. - if the photo path starts in the upper left, the zoom is blocked. Perhaps you can move it automatically if needed. - took me a moment to figure out how to copy a sticker for use in Signal. I expected to be able to long press on the sticker and get a context menu, but that doesn’t work. You have to go to “options” which is not immediately obvious. Also, having to pick a image size is not something most users want to think about, they just want to copy and paste like text.

jazzychad 5y ago
Thanks for the kind words and feedback! Yeah, the photo tracing experience is the most contentious part of the app. Lots of similar feedback from lots of people. I will be improving that in the coming updates. The zoom/pan is definitely tricky b/c it conflicts with the drawing gesture, so panning isn't the easiest thing to accomplish. Again, planning to rethink how to make that better. You should be able to long-press a sticker in the main view and get the same options menu for copying/etc.... does that work for you? I'm also planning on supporting other messaging services like WhatsApp, Signal, Telegraph, etc...
- pimlottc 5y ago
  > You should be able to long-press a sticker in the main view and get the same options menu for copying/etc.... does that work for you? Ah, you’re right, it does work in the gallery view, just not in the detail view where you end up after creating the sticker.

doomrobo 5y ago

Looks very cool! I'm surprised Apple hasn't done this yet. I predict this will either be shut down or bought.

_understood_ 5y ago

TAKE MY $2.00!!!

mft_ 5y ago

Only a 5.3MB download for the whole app? Bravo!

jazzychad 5y ago
Thanks! I worked pretty hard to keep out all the cruft that lots of apps seem to have now. I wanted it to be used all around the world, so I wanted to be respectful of everyone's data limits and ensure it could be easily downloaded by as many people as possible.

cantoni 5y ago

This is really fun to play with, and people love getting custom stickers.

charlietran 5y ago

This is excellent! There used to be a similar app called "Sticky AI", but the company abandoned it after a while and the backend for the app shut down. This works great and has no external dependencies.

jazzychad 5y ago

Hi HN, I hope you will enjoy this app. I was inspired to make it because my daughter likes to make little doodles on my iPad, and I thought it would be fun to add a "sticker" effect so they stand out better against a solid background... then I thought it would be fun to turn it into a Messages sticker app; next thing you know Sticker Doodle was born. I launched the app with translations in English, Spanish, German, Italian, Arabic, Japanese, and Chinese. Everything is stored and sync'd with iCloud, and there is full support for dynamic text sizes and light/dark mode. I took great care to make it an app everyone around the world could use and enjoy. I'm happy to answer questions or take feedback! Lots of features and updates already added to the todo list :)

exportsmedia 5y ago
When I sent the sticker to another device it showed up as a broken thumbnail, is there something else I need to do to make the sticker show up on the divide I send it to?
- jazzychad 5y ago
  hmm, is it possible to send me a screenshot of the other device (to the email in my profile)? it could be a couple different things happening, easier to diagnose if I can see.
mrlagmer 5y ago
Very cool app. My kids will love this. I will be unlocking it for them nice work on the family sharing.
lloydatkinson 5y ago
Would it support Messenger?
- jazzychad 5y ago
  FB Messenger doesn't support custom stickers (that I'm aware of). If it does, please let me know!

dudus 5y ago

Are stickers the new Emojis? Every app seem to have a slightly different implementation and they don't really interoperate well. Can this tool be used for WhatsApp stickers? And how different are Slack and Discord Stickers? I wonder if we'll see some standardization in the future akin to the addition of emojis to Unicode.

okdjnfweonfe 5y ago
stickers are the half-way point between images and emoji, as in, bigger emoji, usually sent without a message. Some platforms upgrade emoji to stickers when used solo (telegram for example) there isn't anything majorly special about them on any platform AFAIK
zaik 5y ago
https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0449.html https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0449.html Now we just have to wait until people leave walled gardens like Slack and Discord and start using the Internet standard for IM.
- dudus 5y ago
  So it's basically a XML file that defines sticker packs and stickers as png files. No notes on size constraints, image formats, installation, distribution, sharing across apps. Seems like an early stage standard.
blengert 5y ago
In case you are interested in adding WhatsApp sticker support, here is the link to the client side code for iOS: https://github.com/WhatsApp/stickers/blob/main/iOS/README.md https://github.com/WhatsApp/stickers/blob/main/iOS/README.md
mafriese 5y ago
I think the problem with emojis is that everyone has the same options to pick from - if you have stickers you can express yourself in a way that fits more your own style(?)
5y ago

werber 5y ago

I would love to be able to make stickers on my iPad and use them on my iPhone. But even without the pencil my first sticker looks terrific! Great job on this!!

jazzychad 5y ago
This should certainly work already if your iPad and iPhone are logged in to the same iCloud account. The stickers should sync automatically when you launch the app on the other device. Please let me know if it's not working for you!

laosb 5y ago

As a user since your beta on Airport: Congratulations for making it on App Store! Just to let you know that Telegram has client-side API (and SDK) for creating sticker packs - hope you can support it!

laosb 5y ago
Er forgot the link to doc: https://core.telegram.org/import-stickers https://core.telegram.org/import-stickers
jazzychad 5y ago
Great, thank you! I will look at the Telegram API/SDK.

kinduff 5y ago

The press kit made me lol, specially the image you picked for yourself. Great job on the app!

easton 5y ago
Whoa! I watched that WWDC session. Is there a story behind the Newton?

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

pgib 5y ago

This is great! If I create a sticker on one device, will it sync via iCloud to my other devices?

mafriese 5y ago
yep

arittr 5y ago

As great as the feature is (and I've always wanted to be able to easily create Stickers) the best thing about this is the obvious love and care that went into the app. 10/10. Inspiring to see a "hobby" project at this level of polish. Thank you.

2muchcoffeeman 5y ago

I wish I thought of this. Then I could quit my job.

sintezcs 5y ago

A great app! But why Telegram is not supported? It’s one of the most popular messages nowadays

mafriese 5y ago

Your app feels really clean! I like the dropping buttons when you want to delete a sticker and the sticker effect when you view a sticker and you pull it up or down. iCloud Sync also works like a charm! Hope you manage to get Whatsapp support in the near future ;)

owly 5y ago

You sir, have a HIT! $2 is a steal for this. One question, what is the app icon supposed to be? I think a kids smiley face or the cat example would make for a better impression.

_understood_ 5y ago

Nicely done! Feature request: folder or hidden compartment/sticker(s) option? It seems as if my only artistic contribution to the world will be in the shape of poorly drawn phallic scribbles. (which I have a plan to leverage via iMessage with my wife and fantasy football group text thread) However, I would like to prevent the awkward conversation with my 6 year old if possible about the "cool drawing" daddy keeps making and texting. ;)

shadowsock 5y ago

Looks super polished! Is there a mac app coming? I started a project similar to this for mac https://github.com/tmprk/Stickers-macOS https://github.com/tmprk/Stickers-macOS