Google May Soon Bake Pixel Studio Sticker Creation Right Into Gboard (APK Teardown)

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

TL;DR

Gboard currently gives you access to stickers generated in Pixel Studio within a dedicated tab in the sticker picker.
New code in the latest Gboard beta suggests that the keyboard app may soon allow users to generate new stickers without opening Pixel Studio.
The feature may let users create new stickers within Gboard by uploading a photo or using a text prompt.

Google rolled out Pixel Studio’s Gboard integration last year, giving users quick access to stickers generated using Pixel Studio in the keyboard app. The company now appears to be working on an upgrade that could let users create new stickers right within Gboard, without needing to open Pixel Studio.

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An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.

Gboard currently has a dedicated tab in the sticker picker that shows user-generated stickers from Pixel Studio on supported devices. Although this tab makes sharing custom stickers in any app incredibly easy, it doesn’t support sticker creation. Users can only add new stickers to the tab by creating them in Pixel Studio. However, code spotted in the latest Gboard beta (version 15.4.4.755290236-beta-arm64-v8a) suggests that Google could soon add this functionality to the keyboard app.

Code

+Powered by Pixel Studio.  +This will discard the current sticker design  +Generated sticker  +Imagine anything  +Creating with Pixel Studio  +Generate sticker  +Removing background…  +Photo sticker  +"Once you're signed in, you can come back to this screen"  +Pixel Studio sign-in needed

The new strings state that Gboard will prompt users to sign into Pixel Studio before sticker creation becomes available. Once signed in, users will be able to generate new stickers in Gboard by uploading a photo or using a text prompt. Gboard will also let users delete custom stickers and add new stickers to a collection.

Code

+The ability to generate images of humans is coming in the future  +"Can't find background in your image"  +Add a prompt  +Sticker can be deleted in Pixel Studio  +Update Pixel Studio to continue  +Try a shorter prompt  +Sticker saved to collection  +"Can't generate this type of image"  +"This language isn't supported"  +Clear sticker deletion selections  +Delete selected stickers  +Custom stickers  +Create unique stickers for every conversation. Powered by Pixel Studio.

Sticker creation in Gboard may have some limitations at launch. The strings indicate the feature may not allow users to generate certain types of images. Additionally, the feature may not support all languages and could gain the ability to create images of humans later on.

The feature appears to be in the early stages of development, as the current Gboard beta doesn’t include corresponding UI elements. We’ll keep an eye out for further changes and update this post as soon as we have more details.

In addition to Pixel Studio-powered sticker creation, Google seems to be working on an AI meme generator for Gboard. We first spotted evidence of the same last month, but it has yet to roll out to users.

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