 |
| Meta officially announces the arrival of Avatars on WhatsApp |
Meta announced Wednesday that it's officially moving its avatar feature, which are customizable avatars available through its other services like Facebook and Instagram, to the instant messaging service WhatsApp.
"Today we're introducing avatars to WhatsApp as a new personal way to express ourselves," the US tech giant said in a blog post. "Your avatar is a digital version of you that can be made up of billions of different combinations of hairstyles, facial features, and clothing," she added.
Meta explained that WhatsApp users can now use an avatar as their profile picture or choose from 36 custom stickers that reflect many different emotions and actions.
The company believes that sending an avatar is a quick and fun way to share feelings with friends and family. It can also be "a great way to represent yourself without using your actual image to make yourself feel special."
Meta notes that this will be the first time for many at creating an avatar and promises to continue to improve character creation, including improvements to lighting, shadows, hair textures, and more, which will improve avatars over time.
This allows users to download WhatsApp for Android from the Google Play Store and iOS from the Apple App Store. The application can also be downloaded on mobile and other desktop devices via the official website.