Facebook Avatars launched its Bitmoji competitor in the U.S.
Facebook Avatars feature, gives a way to customize a virtual lookalike of the user for use as stickers in comments and Messenger chats, which has been launched a few days earlier in the U.S. Facebook’s version of Snap’s Bitmoji. Avatar was first introduced last year and has been since made available in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and Canada.
Based on early feedback, Facebook is expanding a range of Avatar customizations to include a wide variety of new complexions, hairstyles, and dresses.
Avatars might seem silly, but they allow for a form of self-expression that extends beyond the capabilities of text and emoji alone. Using an avatar on digital platforms could be a helpful way to give the tone of the comment so that the user is not misinterpreted during the conversation.
Many people love having the option of crafting a digital character that looks like them — meaning their piercings, glasses, candy-colored hair, goatees, sense of style, or anything that doesn’t come across while using just an emoji alone.
Facebook users initially will be able to set up their Avatar from Facebook as well as Messenger comment composting box. From here, the user will click on the smiley face icon that takes the user to stickers. Users will then see a new option: “Make Your Avatar.”
After completing the Avatar, the user can return to edit it any time from Facebook’s Bookmark section from the three horizontal lines in the bottom-right of the Facebook mobile app. Users will need to click on “See More,” then “Avatars,” in the list that appears.
Avatars can be used with Facebook and Messenger, comments, and conversations. They can be used on the Facebook Gaming user profile. But soon, Facebook said Avatars would be able to be used in text posts with backgrounds.
The company isn’t sharing any metrics on the feature’s adoption but did say Avatars have become particularly popular with the gaming community.
However, the source of inspiration has seen widespread adoption, for the feature, Bitmoji.
In January, Snap told 70% of the daily active users, or 147 million of then 210 million, had made themselves a Bitmoji. The company first bought the way into the “digital persona” business in 2016 when Snap got Bitmoji’s original parent company Bitstrips for $62.5 million. More recently, it introduced Bitmoji TV, where it acts as a Snapchat show, which gives users’ Bitmoji avatars something of animated situations.
Facebook has not yet detailed any more significant than life ambitions to make Avatars, a platform as a monetizable feature. It instead, seems to be playing a game of catch-up with its rivals.
Though Snapchat popularized the concept, various companies have since cloned the Bitmoji phenomenon. Apple, initially in 2018, introduced a customizable persona called Memoji to complement its existing Animoji characters for use in iMessage and FaceTime. Samsung and Google also rolled out Bitmoji in 2018.
But despite delayed arrival in the business, Facebook hasn’t broken any new ground — such as the introduction of Avatars automatically created from user Facebook profile photo or those that move and react as in the popular Gen Z app, Facemoji.