Facebook Avatar Stickers – a first look

Facebook announced Avatar Stickers last year, and now they’re HERE!

Edited to add:

Obviously the Facebook Avatars have had a wider roll-out to Australia and the US as I’ve had countless messages from people trying to set theirs up.

So I’ve added some info to help you.

Step one:

Grab your phone or tablet (not a desktop or laptop)

Step two:

Go to the top right corner menu and press the down arrow which will open Facebook’s main menu as shown in the screenshot below:

Step three:

Got down to “See More” and the following menu will open:

Step four:

Choose “Avatar” and follow the prompts!

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This is the original post from June 17th, 2019.

 

Facebook Avatar Stickers are here, and by here I mean LIVE in Australia – to some users.

Since they’re still rolling out for a lot of people I thought I’d share a bit about it and show you mine.

I had this prompt show up in my newsfeed:

So, of course I had to try it!

If you don’t get the prompt, try adding a comment to a post and press the sticker button to expand the sticker menu. You’ll get the search icon on the left, then your most recent stickers, then a lady waving (at least mine is a lady waving circled below. If you’re a man this could be a man? Not sure…)

If you tap that lady waving icon, you’ll be prompted to make your Facebook Avatar Sticker.

It takes you through the process of setting up your avatar so it looks like you.

You first choose your skin tone (so for me that’s the second whitest) but there’s quite a few options.

Next you choose your hairstyle and colour

Then face shape.

Next – the eyes! First a shape, then a colour, and then eye makeup.

My eyes are green and there’s a couple to choose from as you can see above.

Then it’s onto the all-important eyebrows!

Choose a shape and then a colour to best match your own (or the ones you draw on every day, lol)

The next one is glasses.

There’s quite a few shape options here for the bespectacled.

Now for the nose!

I found this the hardest one to match as the shading on top and bottom of the larger noses makes them look weird and huge. I went with a nose that’s most likely much smaller than my IRL nose so I didn’t get that shading effect.

Next is the lips:

Shape (above) and colour (below). There are quite a few lip colour options.

Next is facial hair and colour:

I’d say they’ll probably add way more options here as the product rolls out.

Then it was onto body type.

There’s not a lot of options here, and although the skin colours are quite inclusive, there’s no real body type options for anyone without the standard 2 arms and 2 legs. I’d suspect they add to these to be more inclusive.

Next you choose from the limited outfit choices.

There are a few options for hats to mix it up a bit more and also head coverings.

I chose not to add a hat.

And that’s it – you’re done! Admire yourself in Facebook Avatar sticker form. You’d imagine that as time goes on (assuming the Facebook Avatar Stickers are widely adopted) that companies would be able to sponsor clothing, hats etc. maybe even lipstick shades.

You can use these Facebook Avatar Stickers to comment on posts both in the newsfeed and on Messenger.

So far these are the options I have available.

Screenshots from Messenger.

The  above image also shows where the Facebook Avatar Stickers are accessed – show here as the waving avatar next to the clock face icon on the bottom menu on my phone whilst in Messenger (I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 8)

There’s a few options that cover the standard On My Way, Congratulations, OMG etc.

and then the ever-useful bachelorette sticker? Can’t really see myself using that one…

So that’s it – Facebook Avatar Stickers explored.

Do you have them yet? You might not as they roll out to different countries and profiles at different times.

Let me know what you think, is it a dumb gimmick that’s come too late behind Bitstrips, Snapchat and Bitmoji? A great new addition to Facebook’s features – or something else entirely?