Facebook To Release Its Version Of Bitmoji Called Facebook Avatars

• Facebook is introducing Facebook Avatars.
• It is not clear how will avatars be captured.
• People are increasingly using visual communication instead of text on social media.

A developer Jane Manchun Wong has found some screenshots on Facebook for Android application package. The set of images shows unreleased feature of the app called Facebook Avatars. The new feature is Facebook's version of Bitmoji, a Snapchat's acquisition that was for many years in the top-10 apps chart.

This option lets users create personalized and illustrated versions of themselves which can be later used as stickers in comments and the Messenger. They will be able to customize their avatar's skin color, facial features, and hairstyle.

Image Courtesy Of: Jane Manchun Wong

Tech Crunch says that Facebook has confirmed that they will be releasing this new feature anytime soon. They say that it is a new way for users to express themselves on that platform. The company confirmed that we will be able to choose between different versions of our avatar like happy, sad, angry, confused, bored, etc.

We still don't know how will the Avatar configuration work. Facebook could be using machine vision along with AI to generate the avatars from our photos but there is also a possibility of Facebook Spaces VR avatars.  These VR avatars can be, as shown back in 2017, automatically generated. It is possible that AI implementation will have to wait until all the hype with the latest privacy scandal settles down. The idea of AI scanning all of our photos and recreating our face can seem a bit scary to some users right now.

As Mark Zuckerberg said on multiple occasions, visual communication is rapidly replacing text on the Facebook's platform. Currently, users have only a few generic emojis at their disposal to express their feelings so it seems like this feature is long overdue on the platform.