Meta, the owner of Instagram, announced on Monday that it will incorporate 3D avatars and upgrades for existing ones in Facebook and Messenger. People in the United States, Canada, and Mexico can use stickers, feed posts, Facebook profile pictures, and other platforms from Meta’s Quest VR platform to portray their virtual selves. The new avatars will include more inclusive facial shapes and assistive technologies like cochlear implants, hearing aids, and wheelchairs to better represent people with impairments, according to Aigerim Shorman, Meta’s general manager for avatars and identities.
“Since revealing our long-term vision of the metaverse at Connect 2021, we’ve continued building out this next evolution of social technology, building towards a future where you can sit in the same room as loved ones who are actually thousands of miles away or work naturally with a talented team that spans the globe.”
-Shorman
These avatars help to further the firm’s push into the still largely aspirational metaverse, according to Monday’s announcement, which Shorman characterized as an “interconnected digital world, one that connects VR and AR but also other well-known platforms like your phone and computer.”
Meta’s metaverse intentions: 3D Avatar, VR, and more
The metaverse, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a priority for the company, which he addressed last year when he changed Meta’s name. “One day you’ll be able to have many avatars in different styles and ranges of expressiveness,” he wrote on Monday.
At its Facebook Connect event in October, Metaverse previewed its Codec Avatars and real-time environment rendering, but the firm emphasized that much of the research was still ahead.
On Monday, Meta launched Super Bowl LVI-themed T-shirts for avatars on its platforms. On February 13th, the Cincinnati Bengals will face off against the Los Angeles Rams at the Rams’ SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
On February 2nd, Meta will present its fourth-quarter results, and according to the company, it will break out results for its AR and VR Reality Labs unit for the first time, providing a glimpse at the financial influence of Meta’s focus on the Metaverse on Meta’s other businesses.
