TikTok has thrown its hat into the ring by releasing its own avatar creation tools. TikTok’s Avatars, which are now accessible via the ‘Effects’ tab in the camera view, allow users to build personalized character representations for usage across the app.
“Create a TikTok Avatar that expresses your particular style by selecting from a variety of hairstyles, accessories, piercings, and makeup options. Once your Avatar is complete, you may begin filming videos. Your Avatar will imitate your movements and gestures.
The functionality is comparable to Apple’s ‘Memoji,’ which allows users to utilize their chosen Memoji character as effectively a digital puppet, with the character moving in reaction to the user’s motions when staring into the camera. TikTok’s avatars are nearly identical to these, even down to their cartoonish appearance. However, TikTok’s characters also feature a’miniature avatar’ capability, which will be the principal usage of the feature at least initially.
In ‘Miniature’ mode, users will be able to overlay their personalized avatar on their TikTok videos
With their digital figure interacting with TikTok clips and remixes or delivering voice-over instructions as a talking head, this might provide a variety of novel creative use cases.
The key motivation here is remaining in touch with the next phase of digital connection and developing avatar tools that will increasingly coincide with shifts in usage habits, while also assisting with maintaining users’ presence in each app. Meta’s 3D avatars are already evolved and can be used in a variety of ways on both Facebook and Instagram, while Snap’s Bitmoji characters are also matched with users.
Both Meta and Snap are already investigating the sale of digital apparel for their virtual characters, while Meta is also attempting to fuse its Avatar with VR and eventually its metaverse vision. Within this, users will acquire accustomed to interacting via these portrayals, which is why TikTok is attempting to enter the market in the hopes that its users would develop a stronger attachment to their in-app caricatures.
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