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This is interesting – Twitter is experimenting with a new integration that would enable users to display their Bitmoji character as their Twitter profile image, providing another way to use your digital avatar as a representation of yourself.
As you can see in this image, posted by app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi, Twitter’s testing out a new Bitmoji integration within the profile image upload flow, with an ‘Add Bitmoji’ button to connect your Bitmoji account.
Which, of course, would also link your Twitter profile to Snapchat, which owns Bitmoji. Essentially, this integration would provide a direct link between your Snapchat profile, where you create your Bitmoji character, and Twitter, which may be the first time that the two platforms have partnered on a direct integration of this type.
That’s interesting in terms of competition, given the two platforms operate in a competitive space. But at the same time, Twitter doesn’t have its own native avatar creation tools, as yet, and the integration with Bitmoji likely suggests that it’s not looking to add such, instead leaning on Snap’s character creation tools to enable another means of expression with your Twitter presence.
Snapchat’s been looking to make its Bitmoji characters a bigger part of the in-app experience, even launching a range of branded Bitmoji clothing options to provide more ways for users to express their identity in the app.
The expanded view is that users will come to rely on these digital caricatures as another means of expression. And as we move towards the metaverse future, where we’ll all be interacting via digital puppets, maybe that will then endear users enough to their Bitmoji characters to adopt them as their primary digital avatars to be used across these new, immersive spaces.
Which is why expanding them to Twitter as well makes a lot of sense, in enhancing that connection and affiliation with the depiction.
We asked Twitter about the experiment, and it provided us with this statement:
“We are always exploring new ways for people to express themselves on the platform. We don’t have further details to share at this time.”
So nothing to go on yet, but it is an area that Twitter’s exploring – and in a world where Twitter users are increasingly using random images of monkeys, goblins, and other cartoon characters as their profile images in the app, a Bitmoji integration seems to make a lot of sense.
It could be another stepping stone to the metaverse, and a future where we interact in totally new ways.
We’ll keep you updated on any progress.
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