First off, on Fb, now you can choose a new avatar-specific posting possibility, which allows you to create a complete put up targeted in your digital character.

As you possibly can see on this instance, shared by Jonah Manzano, the brand new posting course of allows you to choose an avatar depiction in a complete new put up creation mode.

Social media skilled Matt Navarra additionally shared these photos of the brand new avatar put up creation course of.

It’s a brand new technique to share on Fb, which places elevated emphasis in your digital ‘mini-me’, which Fb’s hoping will get extra customers participating by way of these depictions.

It’s additionally added new methods to make use of your avatar on Instagram:

And 3D avatars on WhatsApp:

The brand new choices construct on Meta’s numerous avatar-related updates over the previous yr, together with up to date 3D character designs, sponsored gadgets for avatars, themed costumes on your digital depiction, and extra.

Which all leads into the following part of Meta’s metaverse shift.

In my latest 2023 social media predictions put up, I famous that:

“Meta actually needs to get folks excited concerning the metaverse, and a method to do this is to combine its digital avatars into extra locations within the app.”

And already, as you possibly can see, Meta is placing this into observe, with a rising vary of avatar integrations and processes, offering extra methods for folks to construct reference to their digital doppelganger, and use it as an expression and engagement possibility.

By establishing stronger hyperlinks together with your digital character, Meta’s successfully normalizing this as a consultant possibility, which is able to ideally make folks really feel extra snug in utilizing these cartoonish depictions for wider goal in its evolving experiences.

So whereas these are simply enjoyable integrations proper now, they’re additionally, primarily, stepping stones to metaverse interplay, by which these precise depictions will turn out to be you, and the way folks meet you in VR and AR environments.

Snapchat’s seen the identical with Bitmoji, with over 250 million folks participating by way of their Bitmoji characters daily. Every utilization additional aligns every of those customers with their digital depiction, and Snap’s now wanting to make use of that as a way to promote digital clothes on your character, new merchandise and designs to boost personalization, and to additional join you to your Bitmoji as your avatar for the following part.

Meta’s nonetheless a manner off that stage of connection, however with a lot bigger attain, and lots of extra choices for avatar utilization, that’s the identical playbook that it’s now following, in working to raised join customers to their avatar depictions, which may then be simply merged into the metaverse expertise.

We’re seeing the choices improve, as Meta seems to place extra emphasis on avatar utilization.

Anticipate that to proceed to ramp up all through 2023.