When I got my very first smartphone, I remember the first two online messaging apps I downloaded were Facebook and WhatsApp.
I was a regular texter and so I used the apps a lot back then and at the time, my favorite ways of showing emotions in my texts were through emojis.
I loved using emojis a lot because they conveyed each emotion well and they portrayed how I felt. My favorite emojis back then were the eye-rolling emoji and the emoji that pulled a long face.
'🙄' and '😒'.
I used to use them a lot (and I don't know why) to the extent that they became sort of a signature emoji for me.
The one I think I overused was the second emoji (the one showing disapproval) looking back now, I think I used it to convey emotions that didn't quite fit it.
I used it when I was bored, but that's not exactly how a bored face should look and so whenever I told someone I was bored, I would drop that emoji beside the text thinking that whomever I was texting would immediately understand, instead what I used to get in response were questions.
"Are you bored or angry?"
"Who annoyed you?"
"Why are you sad?"
And so on..
So I had to explain that I was neither angry nor sad, I was just bored.
I also rolled my eyes at every given opportunity, emoji-wise which always brought on more and more questions. 🙄
Time passed and I evolved and found a new favorite. The smirking emoji.
'😏'.
I remember vividly how this used to freak people out because as usual, I overused it. I didn't know back then that there was a difference between a smile and a smirk and I used to think they were one and the same so whenever I smiled at a text, I'd send the smirking emoji to convey my harmless smile.
But I wasn't understood as usual and I was told to stop using it. I didn't see the harm in smirking repeatedly so I didn't listen and smirked away, blissfully.
Later on, I came across stickers. I began using stickers while texting on WhatsApp, the stickers on the green app are more fun to use than other apps.
It took a while for me to start liking stickers because the ones I first saw where so odd, I didn't want anything to do with them. Until I found the ones that actually reflected my exact feelings and emotions.
That's where the difference between emojis and stickers lie. Emoji's are somewhat limited in terms of exact portrayal. Emoji's are used to show emotions, but a lot of emotions exist and in different forms in which emojis do not have and I think that was the problem I had. I couldn't find the one that exactly showed how I felt and that was why I overused the ones I liked logically.
When I came across more and more stickers I felt relief at last, relief from always being misunderstood and I could finally use stickers to show exactly how I feel without having to explain myself.
Stickers are my favorites now and have been for a very long time. I use stickers all the time and though I still use emojis especially the eye-rolling emoji, stickers will always come first for me.
I have lots of stickers saved and I always use them, each one depending on my mood.
I have stickers that are my favorites because they are funny and they make me laugh.
I also made some stickers of my own sometime ago just for the fun of it but my phone got damaged and I lost all my precious stickers which I made up for by making more stickers when I got a new phone.
Stickers give more life to texts and they make texting fun and interesting.
Emoji's do the same too, but stickers do it better.
GIFs
As for GIFs, I am not a fan of GIFs because they also do what stickers do and show what stickers show (in my opinion).
Plus, stickers are lighter and send faster than GIFs and can easily be reached when needed.
I have used GIFs from time to time only because I wanted to try something different while texting but I soon figured that I preferred stickers and emojis more.
IN CONCLUSION: I prefer stickers and they're always my first go-to whenever I need to show exactly how I feel. I have several stickers for basically everything and I love to use them all the time as long as I am texting.
I have gotten used to using stickers so much that I can't go without at least sending in one or several. It's a habit now.
Thank you for reading 
Let me know your favorite way of texting in the comments section below.