Meta, the company behind Messenger and Instagram, has announced that users can now use avatars in their video calls, this new feature allows users to participate in video calls without appearing through their actual camera feed, instead, they can use their personalized avatars, which will be animated and mimic the user’s real-time movements, such as facial expressions and gestures.
This new feature is a welcome addition for individuals who prefer not to show their faces during video calls or when receiving calls at inconvenient times, it also serves as an alternative to audio-only communication.
This feature is similar to the use of Memoji avatars by Apple in FaceTime video calls, the ability to make video calls using avatars is now available on both Messenger and Instagram applications for Android and iOS, provided that both apps are updated to the latest available version.
Meta has also introduced the feature of animated avatar stickers, allowing users to create multiple animated stickers based on their avatar image, these stickers can be used in comments on Facebook, Instagram messages, Messenger, as well as in Stories and Reels, short video clips.
Meta stated that it is unifying the appearance of avatars across its virtual reality platform and various applications, and added that the standard look will make the avatars appear more realistic than before.
It’s worth mentioning that Microsoft had officially announced the launch of avatar images in its video meetings application, Teams, however, this feature is currently not available to users of the free version but only to those with paid plans.
