WhatsApp to roll out its personalised AI avatar generator

WhatsApp is reportedly developing a new generative AI feature that will enable users to create personalised avatars for use in any imagined scenario. This upcoming feature, identified in the latest WhatsApp Beta for Android by WABetaInfo, will likely utilise a mix of user-provided images, text prompts, and Meta’s AI Llama model to generate these avatars.

A screenshot shared by WABetaInfo indicates that users can envision themselves 'in any setting from the forest to outer space.' The sample images resemble those produced by AI generators, especially if you've used applications like Lensa AI or Snapchat's 'Dreams' selfie feature.

To create the personalised avatar, users will need to take photos of themselves once, which will be used to train Meta AI to generate images in the user's likeness across various settings. Users can then create their avatars by typing 'Imagine me' with a description of the setting in Meta AI chat, or in other WhatsApp conversations by typing '@Meta AI imagine me'. 

This feature will reportedly be optional, requiring users to enable it manually in the WhatsApp settings before use. According to WABetaInfo, the reference images can be deleted at any time through the Meta AI settings.

There is no indication of when the new Imagine AI selfie feature will be generally available to users. Considering WhatsApp is still in the process of rolling out support for its Meta AI chatbot and broader real-time AI image generation for users in the US, the new AI avatar feature may take some time to launch.