Facebook initially announced the Avatar roll out back in May and released it to the US market that same week. Now, millions of users in Africa will get to create their own Bitmoji-esque cartoon lookalikes.

The customisation options are pretty extensive and impressive. Have fun!

Facebook Avatars – What you need to know

Your digital persona

Thanks to Facebook, you’ll now have even more ways to express yourself online. According to Facebook, you can use your personalised avatar “to share a range of emotions and expressions via a digital persona”.

This digital persona will be unique to you and can be used in Facebook comments, Messenger and Stories. It will also roll out to “text posts with backgrounds” soon, Facebook promised.

Customising your Facebook Avatar

Avatars can be customised to represent you, and customisation options include hairstyles, outfit, and complexions. Thanks to the lasting changes brought about by the pandemic, COVID-19 support stickers will be available too.

Nunu Ntshingila, Regional Director, Facebook Africa, says the team wanted to give users of the platform the opportunity to “share and react to content in the most personalised way possible”. Ntshingila adds:

How to create your Facebook Avatar

For now, creating a Facebook Avatar will only be possible if you have the app installed. It’s really easy to set up. Anyone who has created a Bitmoji or Memoji in the past will sail through the customisation options.

Unless, of course, you fall in my category of RPG playing, where you spend hours customising a character before you get to start playing, but that’s a story for another time…

• Login or set up a Facebook account.
• Go to the Facebook or Messenger comment composer.
• From there, click on the “smiley” button,
• Then select the sticker tab.
• Now click on “Create Your Avatar”.

Watch: How to create your Facebook Avatar

Avatars include hundreds of global sticker packs and integrations with GIF providers. In addition, it can be shared across Facebook and Messenger by either setting it as a Profile Picture or sharing to your News Feed.

Alternatively, you can also use it on your Gaming Profile. I personally am stoked about the last option; I’ve been using the same avatar since I signed up and to be honest, it’s time for a change.

This is your chance to finally get a Memoji-like avatar, even if you’re not a user of the Apple.