[nemothekid]

>I admit it, I don't get the draw of these things.

On the other hand these aren't features Apple is pioneering. Stickers, larger emojis and other text effects have been in WeChat/Line/FB Messenger/Snapchat for a while now.

Now that iMessage has them, Apple just decided to give those features the classic Apple marketing fanfare.

So in short, "the children" have been using these features for a while now, Apple just decided to let you know they exist.