Snapchat may have brought photo stickers into the spotlight, but photo editing app PicsArt is making them personal. On March 21, the popular image editor launched a new tool that allows users to create their own custom stickers, then export them for use on Facebook, Instagram, iMessage, Messenger and other social media and messaging apps.
The new suite of editing tools means users can create their own stickers from their own images or one of the app’s six million free-to-edit photos. Stickers can also be designed using PicsArt’s illustration tools, making it possible to use custom drawings as well as photos. This feature is based off an earlier release of tools that let users cut out sections of an image; PicsArt adjusted that feature to now allow cutouts of custom stickers that can easily be re-used across multiple projects.
“Stickers have become the universal form of communication and are a great way to annotate other images,” PicsArt CEO Hovhannes Avoyan said in a press release. “Since we launched our Cutout tool with powerful and accurate edge detection, our users have been making more and more cutouts and using them like stickers. Now, more than 450,000 cutouts are created in PicsArt every day – that’s over two million per week. Today’s launch encourages even more sticker creation by providing users with a rich set of tools for creating, sharing and discovering stickers.”
After downloading the updated app (on both iOS and Android), PicsArt users can access the new tools by tapping the pink plus sign and choosing the sticker options. The stickers can start from a blank canvas and drawing tools or a photograph. Outline tools tells the app which portions of the image to leave in that new sticker.
PicsArt’s latest feature makes it possible to turn yourself, your pets, your drawings or whatever you can imagine (or photograph) into a re-usable sticker. The custom stickers also join a new sticker gallery where users can download and share other stickers.
The latest sticker tools join the more than 3,000 editing options inside PicsArt, which now has 90 million monthly active users. The updates are available to download on both iOS and Android platforms.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.