Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Social Media
  3. News

Bitmoji-like Facebook Avatars makes emoji stickers look like you

By
Facebook

Facebook is preparing to trade the yellow smiley for emojis that actually look like you. Beginning Monday, June 3, Facebook Avatars allows users to create their cartoon lookalike — not unlike a Bitmoji — for using in comments, messages, and more. The feature is initially rolling out to users in Australia, but the social media network aims to roll out the feature to the rest of the user base by early 2020.

Facebook Avatars use a user-generated character to generate stickers for comments and messages, as well as potentially becoming part of post reactions along with the standard emojis. Facebook says the avatars are designed to be more realistic than cute, including a wide range of skin and hair colors as well as different clothing options from ripped jeans to a hijab.

Recommended Videos

Once the feature rolls out, users will be able to create their virtual lookalike inside the comments options or in Messenger. In comments, the process starts by tapping the emoji icon and then navigating the Avatar sticker pack. From there, users can customize the characteristics and clothing of the avatar.

Facebook has been toying with the idea of custom avatars for years; more than a year ago, the social media company shared software that generated an avatar from a photo. That software still isn’t yet making its way to users, however, with the new tool sticking with the standard build-your-own option. While Facebook says the avatars are designed to look more realistic, the feature doesn’t have the same level of reality as the company’s virtual reality avatar software shared earlier this year.

Related

While generating an avatar from an image is a unique concept, designing an avatar for custom stickers on social media is anything but unique. Facebook Avatars channels the popular Bitmoji, now owned by Snapchat, which are also popular outside the social media network.  While Facebook’s built-in avatar generator doesn’t appear to be taking aim at the stand-alone Bitmoji app, the feature, like Stories, feels similar enough for Snapchat to cry copycat. (To be fair, Bitstrips were integrated into Facebook in 2012 before Snapchat bought the company in 2016.)

While the feature launched in Australia, Facebook didn’t share details on an exact timeline of the rollout outside a general early 2020 prediction.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Hillary K. Grigonis
Hillary K. Grigonis
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Hillary never planned on becoming a photographer—and then she was handed a camera at her first writing job and she's been…
Facebook’s Zuckerberg makes waves with offbeat Fourth of July Instagram video
Mark Zuckerberg surfing.

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg celebrated the Fourth of July by riding across a lake on his electric hydrofoil board with the American flag in hand. Back on dry land, The Zuck stuck John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads on a video of his ride and posted it on Instagram.

Apart from a couple of slight wobbles, Zuckerberg, whose social networking company owns Instagram, looks confident enough as he tears along the water on his hydrofoil board, the flag fluttering in the wind as he goes.

Read more
How to make a Facebook avatar
facebook avatars launch character line up white bg copy

You've probably seen people posting avatars that look almost like Bitmoji or Memoji avatars all over your Facebook feed. If you can't figure out how to get your own, don't worry. The process isn't very obvious, but once you know what to look for, setting up your avatar is easy. Here's how to how to make a Facebook avatar and how to use your own mini-me.
How to find the avatar option

To get to the setup, open the Facebook app and tap on the menu. Then, tap on See More and Avatars. Now you should be looking at the avatar creation screen. From here you can choose the skin tone, face shape, hairstyle, facial features, body shape, and clothing for your avatar.

Read more
Facebook vs. Facebook Lite: Which is best for you?
galaxy s6

Love it or hate it, Facebook has become an integral part of many people's online lives. One way you might be able to improve your social media experience is to look at Facebook’s Lite app (available for Android and iOS). Both the primary Facebook and Facebook Lite apps offer all the main features of Facebook, but the later version is designed to use less network data and will work well on low-end devices. We look at both applications to see which is best for you in this Facebook versus Facebook Lite battle.
Facebook
 
Facebook Lite

Features
Let’s start with the features of each application. Both Facebook and Facebook Lite offer the social network’s main features; however, Facebook doesn’t address what it considers its main features, so you will need to discover what is missing as you use the app. Our testing found that most primary features were available, including the News Feed, Marketplace, Stories, and Groups. If you’re comparing the two applications, we recommend downloading Facebook Lite and giving it a try for yourself to see if anything you consider vital is missing.

Read more