Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday announced the company is bringing digital avatars to WhatsApp. On WhatsApp, people can now use their personalised avatars as profile photos or choose from one of 36 custom stickers reflecting many different emotions and actions.
"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," said Zuckerberg.Your avatar is a digital version of you that can be created from billions of combinations of diverse hair styles, facial features, and outfits.
"Sending an avatar is a fast and fun way to share feelings with friends and family. It can also be a great way to represent yourself without using your real photo so it feels more private," said WhatsApp. The company said that it will continue to deliver style enhancements including lighting, shading, hair style textures, and more that will make avatars even better over time.
Zuckerberg looks forward to "seeing people explore and build immersive worlds, and to bringing this to more countries soon". "We want everyone to have control over their experience in Horizon Worlds, so we're always working to add more tools and features that let people customise their own experiences," Meta had said in a blog post.
Meta has also announced to add legs to its virtual avatars which are not yet on its VR platform Horizon Worlds, and may arrive early next year.