Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and its associated apps and services, today announced that it is introducing virtual 3D avatars for Indian users. Users on the company’s platforms, which include Facebook, Messenger and Instagram, will be able to use their 3D avatars as stickers, on the main content feed of posts as well as on Facebook profile photos.
This is the first time that Meta is rolling out the feature for Indian users on Facebook and Messenger, and for the first time for Instagram users across the world. The latter can use these avatars on Instagram stories and direct messages, although using these avatars as profile images will only work on Facebook, Meta’s flagship platform.
Virtual 3D avatars have been used via private messaging for some time for use in messaging via stickers and in display images. In June 2018, Apple introduced Memoji, which used augmented reality to map a user’s face, and allowed customization of accessories, skin tone and more to create a virtual figure of their choice. .
Meanwhile, Facebook’s avatars bring virtual avatars to its social media platform – a nascent but growing industry. Earlier this month, a report by data analytics firm Data.ai on social media platforms using virtual avatars said that the use and adoption of such companies has increased by 60% year-on-year in 2021.
However, most of the user interest in such applications has come from mature Internet markets such as the USA, UK, France, Japan and South Korea. Such standalone platforms still have limited adoption – the virtual avatar social media app collectively achieved 38 million downloads last year, the Data.ai report said.
The use of virtual avatars on Meta’s platforms – Facebook and Instagram – aims to complement its Metaverse concept through its virtual reality platform, Horizon Worlds. Manish Chopra, director and head of partnerships for India at Meta, said the introduction of virtual 3D avatars and a range of customization options aims to cater to the diversity of real-world personalities as part of “representation in the metaverse”.