What a .tgs file is and how to open it
Downloaded an animated sticker from Telegram and got a .tgs file that won't open in anything? Here's what it is and what to do with it.
What TGS is
TGS is an animated Telegram sticker. Inside is a Lottie animation (a vector JSON format by Airbnb) compressed with gzip. Thanks to vectors, stickers weigh just a few kilobytes and stay crisp on any screen.
Why .tgs won't open
Only Telegram reads TGS directly. Ordinary image and video viewers don't recognise it, because it's neither a picture nor a video but a packed JSON animation. To use the sticker outside Telegram, you need to convert it.
How to open and use TGS
- TGS → GIF — a regular animated GIF you can send anywhere, with a chosen background colour or transparency.
- TGS → Lottie JSON — the original animation for developers: works with lottie-web, apps and editors.
- Lottie JSON → TGS — repack it if you're building your own sticker.
Everything is free and sign-up-free, and files are deleted automatically.