diff --git a/pkg/sendMessage/service/send_service.go b/pkg/sendMessage/service/send_service.go
index c6ecdcdd..bb5198b6 100644
--- a/pkg/sendMessage/service/send_service.go
+++ b/pkg/sendMessage/service/send_service.go
@@ -1568,9 +1568,9 @@ func (s *sendService) SendSticker(data *StickerStruct, instance *instance_model.
 	var filedata []byte
 
 	if strings.HasPrefix(data.Sticker, "http") {
-		webpData, err := convertToWebP(data.Sticker)
+		webpData, err := stickerWebP(context.Background(), data.Sticker)
 		if err != nil {
-			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to convert image to WebP: %v", err)
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to prepare sticker payload: %v", err)
 		}
 
 		filedata = webpData
@@ -1591,6 +1591,7 @@ func (s *sendService) SendSticker(data *StickerStruct, instance *instance_model.
 		FileEncSHA256: uploaded.FileEncSHA256,
 		FileSHA256:    uploaded.FileSHA256,
 		FileLength:    proto.Uint64(uint64(len(filedata))),
+		IsAnimated:    proto.Bool(webpIsAnimated(filedata)),
 	}}
 
 	message, err := s.SendMessage(instance, msg, "StickerMessage", &SendDataStruct{
diff --git a/pkg/sendMessage/service/sticker_webp.go b/pkg/sendMessage/service/sticker_webp.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c86ed3aa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/sendMessage/service/sticker_webp.go
@@ -0,0 +1,112 @@
+package send_service
+
+// Sticker payload handling.
+//
+// `SendSticker` used to run every sticker through `convertToWebP`: fetch the URL, decode with
+// `image.Decode` and re-encode with `webp.Encode(Quality: 80)`. That is wrong whenever the source
+// is already a WebP — which is the case for every sticker that came from WhatsApp itself:
+//
+//  1. Animated stickers cannot be sent at all. The registered decoder (chai2010/webp) only reads
+//     static WebP, so an animated file fails with `webpDecodeRGBA: failed` and the whole send dies.
+//  2. The ones that do go through lose quality for nothing — a perfectly valid WebP is decoded and
+//     re-compressed at 80%.
+//
+// So: if the downloaded bytes are already a valid WebP, they are uploaded untouched. Animation and
+// quality survive, and the conversion path is left to the inputs that actually need it (PNG, JPEG).
+
+import (
+	"bytes"
+	"context"
+	"encoding/binary"
+	"fmt"
+	"image"
+	"io"
+	"net/http"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/chai2010/webp"
+)
+
+const (
+	// maxStickerBytes caps the sticker download. WhatsApp rejects stickers far smaller than this;
+	// the limit exists so a hostile URL cannot exhaust the process memory — relevant now that the
+	// payload is uploaded rather than decoded, so nothing downstream constrains its size either.
+	maxStickerBytes = 10 << 20 // 10 MiB
+
+	// stickerFetchTimeout bounds the download. The sticker URL is supplied by the API caller and
+	// may point anywhere, so a server that accepts the connection and then stalls would otherwise
+	// hold the goroutine open indefinitely.
+	stickerFetchTimeout = 30 * time.Second
+)
+
+var stickerFetchClient = &http.Client{Timeout: stickerFetchTimeout}
+
+// stickerWebP fetches the sticker URL and returns WebP bytes ready to upload.
+//
+// A source that is already a valid WebP is returned untouched; anything else is decoded and
+// encoded to WebP as before.
+func stickerWebP(ctx context.Context, url string) ([]byte, error) {
+	req, err := http.NewRequestWithContext(ctx, http.MethodGet, url, nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to build request for sticker URL: %v", err)
+	}
+	resp, err := stickerFetchClient.Do(req)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to fetch image from URL: %v", err)
+	}
+	defer resp.Body.Close()
+
+	// Without this, an HTML error page is read as if it were image data: it fails later, deeper,
+	// with a decode error that says nothing about the URL having answered 404.
+	if resp.StatusCode < 200 || resp.StatusCode > 299 {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("sticker URL returned HTTP %d", resp.StatusCode)
+	}
+
+	raw, err := io.ReadAll(io.LimitReader(resp.Body, maxStickerBytes+1))
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to read image from URL: %v", err)
+	}
+	if len(raw) > maxStickerBytes {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("sticker exceeds %d bytes", maxStickerBytes)
+	}
+
+	if isWebP(raw) {
+		return raw, nil
+	}
+
+	img, _, err := image.Decode(bytes.NewReader(raw))
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to decode image: %v", err)
+	}
+	var buf bytes.Buffer
+	if err := webp.Encode(&buf, img, &webp.Options{Lossless: false, Quality: 80}); err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to encode image to WebP: %v", err)
+	}
+	return buf.Bytes(), nil
+}
+
+// isWebP reports whether b is a well-formed WebP container.
+//
+// It checks the RIFF magic AND that the declared payload size fits in the buffer. That second
+// check matters specifically because of the passthrough above: the old conversion path rejected a
+// truncated download for free (a truncated file fails to decode), whereas a partial body still
+// carries valid RIFF/WEBP magic and would be uploaded as-is, reaching the recipient broken.
+func isWebP(b []byte) bool {
+	if len(b) < 12 || string(b[0:4]) != "RIFF" || string(b[8:12]) != "WEBP" {
+		return false
+	}
+	// The RIFF size field counts everything after it, i.e. len(file) - 8. Trailing padding is
+	// tolerated (some encoders add it); a payload larger than what we hold means truncation.
+	return int(binary.LittleEndian.Uint32(b[4:8]))+8 <= len(b)
+}
+
+// webpIsAnimated reports whether a WebP container declares animation.
+//
+// Only the extended format (VP8X) can be animated, and bit 0x02 of its flags byte is the
+// declaration — the same ANIMATION_FLAG libwebp uses. Plain VP8/VP8L are static by definition.
+func webpIsAnimated(b []byte) bool {
+	if !isWebP(b) || len(b) < 21 || string(b[12:16]) != "VP8X" {
+		return false
+	}
+	return b[20]&0x02 != 0
+}