Meta, an immersive reality platform, announced today that it has released new body shapes, hair and clothing textures in its avatars. The company also revealed that more than one billion avatars have been created across its different platforms. Meta users now have the option to choose from a wider range of body shapes, including two curvier body shapes. Furthermore, Meta has upgraded how an avatar’s hair, clothing and eyes appear.
Meta has worked diligently to create a immersive reality platform that allows for users to put a true reflection of themselves in their avatars. In addition to giving users the ability to choose their desired body shape, Meta has improved the realism of their avatars by adding additional detail and realism to both hair and clothing. To make eyes look more reflective and give the avatars character, Meta has also tweaked its lighting model. To showcase their customizable platform, Meta has partnered with PUMA to bring in seven new clothing options to their avatars.
Meta first introduced avatars in 2020 as a way to compete with Snap’s Bitmoji, and has consistently updated its features and options ever since. Recently, they added more expressions, faces, skin tones and accessibility devices to their avatars. However, when Meta opened up its Horizon Worlds to teen users in the U.S. and Canada, Meta was met with warnings and disagreement from lawmakers and children’s rights activists. Yet, Meta is continuing to add to and improve its virtual reality environment.
Meta was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, who is the current CEO. Zuckerberg was an early investor in the metaverse and although the company made has made large losses in its metaverse investments, Zuckerberg emphatically stated to investors that he was not turning away from the virtual reality era and he sees AI as a technology that helps Meta flourish. Mark is determined to develop Meta further and make its immersive reality environment a place that every user can truly customize to their own persona.
