Facebook Messenger Just Got An Update — Instead Of Emoji, Use Avatar For Quick Reactions

Meta Platforms Inc.’s (NASDAQ: META) Facebook Messenger now allows users to interact with friends and family through in-action avatars. 

What Happened: On Friday, social media consultant Matt Navarra took to Twitter to share a few screenshots of a new Messenger feature that enables users to set quick reactions in chats to an avatar instead of an emoji.

Looks like this in action pic.twitter.com/UJQiL3HcPc

— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) December 2, 2022

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Why It’s Important: To create an avatar, users simply need to go on Messenger chat, click the “smiley” button, and then the sticker tab. Click “Create Your Avatar” and that’s it. 

In January, Meta rolled out updated 3D Avatars for Facebook, Messenger, Instagram Stories and DMs. The feature allowed users to show up as their virtual selves across apps via stickers, feed posts and Facebook profile pictures. 

“VR and Quest are key parts of our metaverse vision, but we see the metaverse as an interconnected digital world, one that bridges VR and AR, in addition to more familiar platforms like your phone and computer,” Meta stated then. 

In November, it was reported that Meta was testing the WhatsApp avatar feature for a few beta users on iOS. 

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