WhatsApp Has New Customizable, Playful Avatars for Your Chats and Texts

Meta has launched avatars for the popular chat application WhatsApp, allowing users to customize them to their liking and share them with contacts. 

Just like Memojis and Miis before them, WhatsApp’s new avatars are digital versions of the user, created by combining various hairstyles, facial features, outfits, and accessories. Meta says there are billions of combinations available, so let your unique sense of style set the Internet ablaze. 

You can use your personalized avatar as your profile photo or position it in various ways to reflect different emotions and actions. Again, if you have ever sent a Memoji in a text, you get the gist. At launch, there will be 36 unique actions and corresponding emotions to choose from. 

These avatars, and ones like them, make it easy to represent your physical self in chats without using a real photo. Yay for privacy. 

"We're bringing avatars to WhatsApp! Now you can use your avatar as a sticker in chats. More styles coming soon across all our apps," wrote Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook. 

WhatsApp's new avatars are available now once you update the app, and Meta says they will deliver "style enhancements" over time, including better lighting, shading, new hairstyle textures, and more. 

Meta has not announced, however, whether these avatars will carry over to its other services, such as Facebook and Instagram.