On Tuesday, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced a new real-time Avatar feature for video calls on its popular platforms, Instagram and Messenger, allowing users to use their personalized Avatars instead of their own faces while video calling.
Meta Introduces Avatar Video Calls On Instagram & Messenger
The social media giant announced the release of this exciting feature in a company blog post, which aims to enhance communication and make video chats more fun and engaging without the need for being camera-ready.
Meta Avatars in video calls on Messenger and Instagram will follow the user’s facial expressions and mouth movements during video calls. Users can use different avatars in a video call to several characters, including animals such as a cat, dog, or llama.
“We’ve all found ourselves in a situation where an incoming call finds us with disheveled hair or after an emotional moment. In scenarios like these, we’re rarely ready for the camera. Introducing your Meta avatar, a solution that bridges the gap between switching the camera off and on, allowing you to maintain presence during a call without necessarily being seen,” Meta wrote about the update in the blog post.
“For the first time, we’re giving people using Messenger and Instagram access to real-time calling with Meta Avatars.”
The Avatar feature is being rolled out through Messenger and Instagram on Android and iOS devices.
Further, Meta also introduced animated avatar stickers, which users can share in Instagram and Facebook Stories and Reels, Facebook comments, and 1:1 message threads on Messenger and Instagram.
Users can add a fun and lively touch to their conversations and posts by doing specific actions on these platforms, like waving hello, dancing, or slow clapping.
Besides this, users can interact with their friends’ stickers with the introduction of Social Stickers. They need to use @Tagging to include their friend’s avatars in Facebook stories, enabling their avatars to hang out with each other and have shared experiences in the metaverse.
Social stickers can also be shared in 1:1 message threads, creating inside jokes, reliving a shared moment, or enjoying a sense of togetherness.
Moreover, Meta is testing a new feature on Facebook and WhatsApp that allows users to take a live selfie and create their avatar options within seconds. Users can pick from these options and further personalize them to make them look unique and closer to their real identity.
Moving further, Meta is also standardizing avatars’ appearance across all its platforms so that the way a user looks in VR aligns with Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. This will make the avatar look more realistic.
“Social and stylish, fashionable and fun, no matter how you slice it, avatars give us a glimpse of the opportunities for self-expression that will be afforded by the metaverse,” Meta concluded.
