Say goodbye to the days of only being able to express your emotions through the generic sad, happy, angry or thumbs up emojis on Facebook.
Facebook rolled out its Avatar feature to users in the US this week, after launching it last year in other countries.
Similar to Snapchat’s Bitmoji, the feature allows Facebook users to create a cartoon avatar of themselves. They can use the avatar in comments, Facebook stories and messenger.
“So much of our interactions these days are taking place online, which is why it’s more important than ever to be able to express yourself personally on Facebook,” Fidji Simo, the head of Facebook’s app, said in a post.
“With so many emotions and expressions to choose from, avatars let you to react and engage more authentically with family and friends across the app,” Simo added.
If you can’t wait to try out the new feature, follow the steps below to create your own Facebook avatar. These screenshots were taken in the Facebook app on iOS, but the steps are similar in the Android version.
Step 1: Open up the Facebook app on your iOS or Android phone. Then tap on the three horizontal lines in the bottom-right of your screen.
Step 2: Scroll down and tap “See More.”
Step 3: Tap on “Avatars.”
Step 4: Tap “Next” then “Get Started.”
Step 5: Choose a skin tone that best fits yours and then tap “Next.”
Step 6: Now go through each section of hairstyle, hair color, face shape, eye shape and color, makeup, eyebrows, nose shape, facial hair, body shape, outfit, etc. and customize your avatar to your liking. There’s even a section for face lines and complexion if you want to get down to the extreme details.
If you need to a reminder of what you actually look like, just tap on the mirror icon at the top right of the screen to open your phone’s front-facing camera.
Step 7: When you’re done customizing your avatar and are happy with how it looks, tap the check mark in the top right corner of your screen.
Step 8: Once the screen finishes loading, tap “Next.”
Step 9: Tap “Done.”
Yay! Now that you’ve finished making your avatar, you can tap on the arrow sign in the top right to share it to your Facebook feed or set it as a temporary profile picture.
To see the different Avatar stickers, tap on the sticker icon (the smiling square below the arrow) or if you’d like to make any changes to your avatar, click on the pencil icon.
To use your avatar when making comments, simply tap on the smiley face next to the gif icon, and then tap on the avatar icon on the bottom of the screen (fourth from the left).
