Google's Gboard launches Bitmoji-like Mini stickers, which can be created from users' selfies
Context & Ripple Effects
Gboard has been accumulating expressive-input features for over a year before this launch: instant translation plus automatic emoji and GIF suggestions arrived on Android in March 2017, and Google quietly reworked the iOS app in early 2018 to make GIF creation more accessible. Mini stickers extend that arc from suggesting existing content to generating personalized content from a user's own face.
The move puts Google in direct competition with Bitmoji, whose avatar-sticker model requires users to maintain a persona inside a third-party app and link it into their keyboard. Google's version collapses that into Gboard itself, using selfies as the raw material.
First-order effects
- Users get Bitmoji-style personal avatars without leaving the keyboard or installing a companion app, removing the main friction that made Bitmoji's flow a two-app process.
- Bitmoji now faces a rival whose sticker generation ships pre-installed on Android via Gboard rather than as an opt-in download.
Second-order effects
- Keyboard competition shifts from input accuracy and suggestion quality toward who can generate the richest personalized visual content — a race Google doubles down on weeks later when Emoji Minis bring machine-learning customization to both Android and iOS.
- Messaging apps benefit either way: richer native sticker supply raises engagement inside chat threads regardless of which keyboard wins, pressuring standalone sticker apps' distribution.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, keyboards consolidate into AI-driven expression engines — Google's later Emoji Kitchen mashups and conversation-aware AI sticker and GIF suggestions point toward generated, context-matched visuals replacing static sticker libraries as the default.
The trend: Mobile keyboards are evolving from text-input utilities into AI-personalized visual expression layers, with selfie-derived avatars as the entry point.