Meta plans to bring Avatars to Reels and video chat

By Anita George October 11, 2022

Meta has announced further plans to expand one of its VR features to its other social media and messaging apps.

On Tuesday, during the keynote of its Meta Connect 2022 event, the parent company of Facebook announced that it would be working on bringing its Horizon social VR avatars to Reels, WhatsApp, and Messenger.

Horizon Avatars on Reels. — screenshot

Meta bringing its avatars to Reels appears to be part of its push to integrate avatars further with Meta’s other products such as Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, and WhatsApp.The technology company says that it wants users to be able to use avatars “anywhere you want to express yourself.”

Horizon Avatars on video chats. — screenshot

The company also announced that it was working on allowing users to use their avatars instead of their live video in video chats on WhatsApp and Messenger and that it considers the use of avatars in this way as a sort of “third mode” between “video on” and “video off.” Meta says that it expects to launch this avatar feature for video chats next year.

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