WhatsApp launches avatars with billions of combinations of hair styles, facial ... trends now
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Avatars, the virtual customisable characters already available on Facebook and Instagram, are officially launching on WhatsApp from today.
It means users can create a digital version of themselves from billions of combinations of 'diverse hair styles, facial features and outfits'.
The avatars can be used as a profile picture or sent in the form of one of 36 custom stickers that reflect different emotions and actions.
These show your cartoony face representing your mood with clapping, winking, thinking and flooding the chat with tears.
Cartoon you: Avatars, the virtual customisable characters already available on Facebook and Instagram, are officially launching on WhatsApp from today
Meta had already rolled out the feature to Facebook and Instagram, but now users on WhatsApp can also enjoy playing around with ways to represent themselves without using a real photo.
It is important to the company because it represents the early vision of what Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg hopes will eventually lead to a Metaverse where people can work and play through their own avatars.
The concept is seen as the future of the internet and would blur the lines between the physical world and the digital one.
Zuckerberg has described it as an 'embodied internet.'
The term 'metaverse,' coined in the 1992 dystopian novel 'Snow Crash,' is used to describe immersive, shared spaces accessed across different platforms where the physical and digital converge.
Announcing the introduction of the new feature on WhatsApp, Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook: 'We're bringing avatars to WhatsApp!
'Now you can use your avatar as a sticker in chats. More styles coming soon across all our apps.'
Meta says it hopes to boost both privacy and personalisation.
'Sending an avatar is a fast and fun way to share feelings with friends and family,' the company wrote in a blog post.
'It can also be a great way to represent yourself without using your real photo so it feels more private.'
WhatsApp's avatars feature has been slowly rolling out to beta testers on both Android and iOS for a couple of months now, according to WABetaInfo, but it will now be available for all users
