Meta announced today that it is introducing new body shapes, improved hair and clothing textures for its avatars. The company also announced that more than a billion avatars have been created on its platforms.
Starting this month, users can choose from a wider range of body shapes, including two rounder body shapes. Meta says it’s updating some of its existing options to help differentiate them as well. While Meta previously allowed you to choose your avatar’s body type, the company says the old options were all pretty similar, which is why it’s launching a new one.
In addition, Meta has changed the way an avatar’s hair, clothes, and eyes appear in stickers, profile pictures, cover photos, and more.
“To spare you the technicalities, we’ve added extra detail and realism to both hair and clothes – meaning whether you’re rocking a clean fade and suit or bed head and sweat, your avatar should pop a little better than before, the company wrote in a blog post. “Bright bright, right? We’ve also tweaked our lighting model to add a little more reflective shimmer to your eyes, making them sparkle and bring your personality to life.”
Meta is also teaming up with PUMA to bring seven new outfits to the Meta Avatars Store, which launched last year and allows you to purchase digital apparel for their avatars.
The company first introduced avatars in 2020 as a way to compete with Snap’s Bitmoji and has been constantly updating them ever since. Recently, Meta added more expressions, faces, skin tones, and accessibility devices to avatars.
Today’s announcement comes as Meta recently opened Horizon Worlds to teen users in the US and Canada, after previously limiting the social VR platform to users 18 and over. The move came as lawmakers and children’s rights activists urged Meta to abandon its plans to open up the platform to young users.
The new one also comes a day after CEO Mark Zuckerberg, despite big losses in his metaverse investments, made it a point to tell investors he’s not turning back to the AI job. Rather, he sees AI as technology that interacts with the metaverse.