What you need to know
- Facebook has launched its take on Bitmoji, Avatars, in India..
- The company had started testing the feature in a select few countries last year.
- Avatars were made available in the U.S. and UK in May.
Facebook's Avatars, the company's take on Bitmoji, have just made their debut in India. The company started trying them out last year, before making them broadly available in May.
Now, it's brought them to India, one of Facebook's largest markets as it continues to bring them worldwide. Avatars are fun and easy to set up with Facebook making it easily customizable. Finding them isn't entirely clear at first, but once you know what you're looking for, it's easy to start.
"There's been a ton of work put in to this from the product and design perspective to find out, with how many people on Facebook, how to make this as representative as possible," Facebook Avatars communication manager Jimmy Raimo told TechCrunch, "They're a bit more realistic so they can be your personal avatar vs trying to make them cute, funny, and cartoony."
It's expected that Facebook's Avatars would turn out to be one of the more successful Bitmoji competitors. Apple is a given, but Google's efforts have fizzled out and the company is set to rely on regular old Bitmoji in the future. In the case of Facebook, having Avatars become widely used on Facebook Messenger and its other messaging platforms could help mimic the sort of growth that led to Snapchat's Bitmoji dominating. It's easier to dominate the conversation when you facilitate it.
