Oculus avatars, which have been used since 2016 and only included a waist-up view, received an update after five years. According to the announcement made in Oculus’s blog post, it is emphasized that the completely overhauled virtual reality avatars will be more expressive, more customizable, more diverse, and in more places. This final feature is important because ‘in more places’ indicates that they will be usable across platforms like facebook, messenger, instagram, and even whatsapp.

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The new avatars can be used within a limited number of games, but the company, stating that they will enable more VR developers to use the new avatars later this year, explains its goal as allowing you to be more ‘you’ in the virtual world and ensuring that the new avatars become the representation of your virtual identity. Additionally, they also give the good news that over time, you will be able to bring your same avatar style to other Facebook company technologies where you can control how your avatar looks.

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Containing an almost infinite number of combinations, the new avatars bring you into the virtual reality world in a ‘more personal’ way, while providing more fluidity and realism during use, allowing for realistic expression in the virtual world.

By saying to prepare yourself for new announcements towards the end of this year (likely at the facebook connect event), we might witness new developments in the context of ‘Oculus Quest 3’ and ‘Facebook Horizon’.