Meta, the parent company of Facebook who also owns WhatsApp, has achieved a significant milestone in the development of a feature that brings animated avatars to WhatsApp. This avant-garde feature allows users to represent themselves through animated avatars during video calls. At the moment, a select group of beta testers is exploring this groundbreaking function.

Identified in the latest beta version of the WhatsApp Android application, this feature notifies users of its presence via an app banner. Once activated, the avatar mimics the users’ real-time facial movements and expressions, providing a more personalized virtual interaction during video calls. Users retain the choice to deactivate this feature during calls, offering flexibility based on their comfort level.

Activating the Avatar Feature

To tap into this innovative function, users need to select the ‘Switch to Avatar’ button visible on the app banner. Although there hasn’t been a live demonstration of this feature yet, expectations suggest that it will resemble avatar video calling on Meta’s other platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

Despite introducing animated avatars to the platform, WhatsApp’s commitment to privacy and security remains staunch. Video calls, even with the avatar feature, will continue to uphold end-to-end encryption, ensuring user privacy is not compromised. As of now, Meta has not disclosed a definite timeline for launching this avatar video call feature in the stable version of WhatsApp. However, looking at its current testing phase, it is projected to be available in the forthcoming weeks.