Guide · Updated August 2026

Turn the Cats You Meet Into iMessage Stickers

Dropping the laundromat gray onto a friend's text at exactly the right moment beats any stock emoji. Not a generic cartoon cat, but the fluffy gray one from your own laundromat, cut out clean and stuck right on the message bubble. If you photograph the cats you meet, those photos are sitting right there ready to become the best stickers in your keyboard. There is a built-in way and a faster way, depending on how many cats you meet.

First, the way iMessage stickers actually work

Two different things both get called "iMessage stickers," and it is worth knowing which is which.

Live Stickers are ones you make yourself from your own photos. Since iOS 17, your iPhone can lift a subject out of a picture, and a cat is a perfect subject. The cutout becomes a sticker you own, stored on your device.

Sticker pack apps are sets of pre-made stickers you download from the App Store. They show up in the Messages app drawer, and some live only in the iMessage App Store while others come attached to a full app. Apple's own developer materials note that sticker packs were one of the first and most popular things people built for Messages.

For turning the real cats you meet into stickers, the first idea is the one that matters, because the whole point is that the cat is yours.

How to make a Live Sticker of a cat, step by step

This takes about ten seconds once you have done it once. You need iOS 17 or later.

Open the Photos app and tap the cat photo to view it full screen.
Touch and hold the cat itself. After a moment it lifts away from the background with a little shimmer.
Lift your finger and tap Add Sticker in the menu that pops up.
Optional: tap Add Effect to give it a white outline, a shiny look, or a puffy comic style. The outline is the one that makes a cat pop against a text bubble.

That is it. The sticker is saved to your stickers drawer. If you started from a Live Photo, the same steps make an animated sticker that loops, so a tail flick or a slow blink keeps moving.

A quick tip for cats specifically: the cutout works best when the cat stands out from what is behind it. A tabby against a plain doorway lifts cleanly. The same tabby in tall grass the color of its fur will fight you. If nothing lifts, pick a photo with more contrast between the cat and the background.

How to send your cat sticker in Messages

Once the sticker exists, it is available everywhere your keyboard is.

Open any Messages conversation and tap the plus button, then Stickers, to find your drawer.
Tap a sticker to send it as its own message, or drag it and drop it right onto a photo or a message bubble, where it sticks in place.
Your Live Stickers sync through iCloud, so the ones you make on your iPhone show up on your iPad and Mac too. They also work in Notes, Mail, Freeform, and plenty of third-party apps.

When you send a sticker to someone, it arrives as an image in the thread, so they see your laundromat cat whether or not they have any of the same apps.

The faster way: a sticker for every cat you catch

The Live Sticker method is great, but it is one cat at a time, and you have to hunt down the right photo each time. If you are the kind of person who meets a lot of cats, that adds up.

Cat Collector skips the manual step. It is a free iPhone app built around the cats you meet in the real world. Photograph a real cat and, after the app confirms a genuine cat is in the shot, that catch joins your collection as a hand-drawn, die-cut card noting where you met it, with your name as the finder. Because it is real cats only and not AI, the sticker in your keyboard is a cat you actually met.

The cats you collect become iMessage stickers you can send straight from the keyboard, without cutting each one out by hand. Catch the bodega cat once, and it is both a card in your collection and a sticker ready to drop into the group chat. Every card also has a link, so when you text a friend a cat, they can tap it and add that cat to their own collection. A sticker you send doubles as an invitation.

Where it does not replace Live Stickers: if you want to make a sticker from an old photo already in your camera roll, or from something that is not a cat, the built-in Photos method is still the tool. Cat Collector is specifically about the cats you go out and catch.

Sticker etiquette, and cat etiquette

Two small courtesies.

For stickers, read the room. A well-timed cat lands great in a casual chat and lands strangely in a work thread. Keep a couple of favorites near the front of your drawer for the moments that call for them.

For the cats, get the photo kindly in the first place. Stay at a respectful distance, let the cat come to you, and never chase or grab a cat you do not know. A clipped ear tip means the cat has already been neutered through a community program, so it is a known local. The full method is in our guide on photographing street cats without scaring them off.

Start with one cat

Pick your favorite cat photo right now and make a Live Sticker of it in Photos. It takes ten seconds, and you will use it more than you expect. Then, if you want a sticker for every cat you meet without the manual cutting, let Cat Collector make them for you as you go, and see how to keep track of every neighborhood cat you meet while you are at it.

Sources and further reading

Frequently asked questions

How do I turn a cat photo into an iMessage sticker?

On iOS 17 or later, open the photo in the Photos app, touch and hold the cat until it lifts off the background, then release and tap Add Sticker. It gets saved to your stickers drawer, and from there you can drop it into any Messages conversation. If the photo is a Live Photo, you can make an animated sticker the same way.

Do Live Stickers work in iMessage automatically?

Yes. Once you create a Live Sticker in Photos, it lives in the sticker drawer inside Messages, and it also syncs through iCloud to your iPad and Mac. You can send it inline in text or stick it onto a message bubble. It also works in Notes, Mail, and Freeform, and in many third-party apps.

What is the difference between a Live Sticker and a sticker pack app?

A Live Sticker is one you make yourself from your own photo, stored on your device. A sticker pack app is a set of pre-made stickers you download from the App Store that appears in the Messages app drawer. Cat Collector sits closer to the first idea, since it makes stickers from the real cats you personally photograph.

Can I send a cat sticker to someone who doesn't have the app?

Yes. A sticker you send in Messages arrives as an image in the conversation, so the other person sees it whether or not they have the same app or sticker pack. With a downloadable pack, they can long-press the sticker to find where it came from.

Does Cat Collector make stickers of my cats?

Yes. When you catch a real cat by photographing it, Cat Collector turns it into a die-cut trading card and also makes it available as an iMessage sticker you can send from the keyboard, so the cats you collect become stickers you actually text your friends.

Why won't my photo turn into a sticker?

The lift-the-subject trick needs iOS 17 or later and a clear subject against a distinct background. If nothing lifts, try a photo where the cat stands out from what is behind it, and make sure the whole cat is in frame. Busy or low-contrast backgrounds are the usual reason it fails.