I love my dog, Cinnamon Toast Crunch. She’s brown and white and precious, and I take every opportunity to show her to the world. With an iPhone feature called Live Stickers, I can turn photos of her into emoji and stickers, and then text them to others.

Apple introduced Live Stickers in iOS 17 as an evolution of the tap-and-lift feature from iOS 16, which lets you cut out subjects from photos and Live Photos. Now, by saving those cutouts as emoji and stickers of pets, family and friends, you can send endless cuteness to others.

Here’s how to transform your photos into emoji and stickers to send in Messages and other apps.

How to make Live Stickers and emoji from pictures

1. Open your Photos app.
2. Tap the photo you want to turn into an emoji or sticker.
3. Tap and hold the item in the photo you want to turn into an emoji or sticker until you see the white outline.
4. Tap Add Sticker.

Your iPhone will then add the Live Sticker to your Stickers drawer and appear in your emoji keyboard. If you tap the new sticker, you’ll be given the options to Rearrange, Add Effect or Delete it. Tapping Add Effect will let you add an effect to your sticker, like a white outline, to make it look even more like a sticker. 

The next time you go into Messages, you can use your new sticker as an emoji by tapping the emoji keyboard in the bottom-left corner of your screen, tapping the folded-over circle and tapping the emoji you want to use.

According to Apple, you can use your new Live Sticker anywhere you can access emoji. I tried to use my Live Stickers on the messaging app Slack, but they wouldn’t appear in the app. I also couldn’t access my Live Stickers in some third-party apps, like TikTok, so you might run into some issues when using your Live Stickers outside of Apple apps and devices.

For more on iOS, here are my first impressions of the iOS 26 beta, how to enable call screening in the beta and all the other new features Apple said that update will bring to your device later this year.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s Mini Crossword is the longest of the week, and it was a bit tough, too. Lots of long answers, so it took me over two minutes to solve it. Need the answers? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue:  Friendly and pleasant
Answer: AMIABLE

8A clue: Irritatingly self-important
Answer: POMPOUS

9A clue: Cheerleaders’ accessories
Answer: POMPOMS

10A clue: Barely ___ out a living
Answer: EKE

11A clue: «We haven’t decided yet,» on schedules
Answer: TBA

12A clue: Radio exposure for a song
Answer: AIRPLAY

14A clue: __ of two evils
Answer: LESSER

15A clue: Pancake mix ingredient
Answer: EGG

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Challenge to a court ruling
Answer: APPEAL

2D clue: Dodgers slugger Betts
Answer: MOOKIE

3D clue: Deeply involve oneself (in)
Answer: IMMERSE

4D clue: Smartphone download
Answer: APP

5D clue: Illegal copy
Answer: BOOTLEG

6D clue: Kind of support for the lower back
Answer: LUMBAR

7D clue: English class assignment
Answer: ESSAY

13D clue: French soccer club that won its first Champions League title in 2025, for short
Answer: PSG

Crocs are an infamously ugly shoe style that was once named to Time’s list of the 50 worst inventions. Clippy is an annoying animated paperclip from Microsoft that once made that same list. So maybe it’s fate that the two much-mocked products are teaming up for a pair of limited-edition Crocs the wearer can deck out with a smiling Clippy accessory.

According to The Verge, the Crocs are part of Microsoft’s celebration of its 50th anniversary, and are right now only available for preorder by Microsoft employees. They’re expected to be available to regular folks at an undetermined date.

A representative for Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

While I’m no Crocs fan, what I like about these is the calm, cloud-filled background that honors the famed Windows XP wallpaper of a green hill and cloudy sky, a photo taken by photographer Chuck O’Rear on the Napa-Sonoma county border back in 1996.

Not sure, however, that I like the cloudy scene enough to fork over $80 for a pair of Crocs, even if they do come with a six-pack of shoe charms, including the infamous Clippy. The other charms include the original MSN logo, the Internet Explorer logo, a mouse pointer, a file folder and the computer recycling bin.