Snapchat Bitmojis have become wildly popular, with limitless customization options. It has become one of the most popular avatar services to date, with over 200 million people using Bitmoji stickers a day. Many people have outfitted their Bitmojis with thousands of clothing options, however Snap has slowly been changing the designs of these avatars. While Bitmoji remains extremely popular, many do not like the direction Bitmoji owner Snap, Inc is taking the avatar service.
What are Bitmojis?
Bitmojis were originally created by company Bitstrips 15 years ago. A Bitmoji is an avatar that represents you using a number of different options, such as head shape, facial expressions, hair color, haircuts, and many more options. From here you can set your Bitmoji into multiple different poses and situations to express yourself. The popularity around Bitmojis were primarily from the custom stickers and reaction images that features your personal Bitmoji.
Bitmojis have become wildly popular, with over 250 million active users every day. Over 1 billion Bitmoji avatars have been created, making it by far the most popular Avatar service compared to Metaverse competitors.
In 2016, Snap, Inc, acquired for around $100 million. Bitmojis became integrated into the Snapchat app on many different levels, from contact profile pictures to the Snap Maps feature. Geofilters started to use Bitmojis, as well as other features such as Augmented Reality.
There was a time where you had to use a separate app to create and edit your Bitmoji, however Snapchat has fully integrated Bitmoji into the app allowing you to customize your Bitmoji right in Snapchat.
How Does Snap Maps Work?
With the integration of Bitmoji and Snapchat, there have been many features added that include the charming avatars. One of the most popular of these features is Snap Maps.
Snap Maps allows you to see publicly posted Snapchat stories from all over the world, either locally or globally. Additionally, your Snapchat friends that have enabled Snap Maps will have their Bitmoji visible on the map.
Snap Maps has quickly become one of Snapchat’s more popular (and infamous) features, with friends being able to keep tabs on each others’ locations. Some find it fun, however others find it intrusive and shares too much information with your friends.
How Do You Disable Snap Maps?
Hiding your location on Snap Maps is quite easy.
First, simply navigate to the map tab from the main Snapchat page.
Then, click the settings wheel in the top right corner of the page.
You will see an option for Ghost Mode- click this if you want to be invisible to everyone on your friends list.
You also can customize you can see you on the maps, which will share your location with only certain friends. This is helpful when you want to share your location with only your significant other or small friend group.
By choosing one of these options, you Bitmoji will not be visible on other people’s Snap Maps.
How Have Bitmojis Changed?
Recently, people started to notice that their Bitmoji was changed. Snapchat recently launched a new profile page which featured a 3D version of your customized Bitmoji.
New Profile Page with 3D Bitmojis
At first, people were indifferent to the change. While many thought the level of customization was drastically lower for 3D Bitmojis versus their 2D counterparts, the app primarily still used the original 2D Bitmoji for its features.
However, Snapchat has slowly been integrating the 3D Bitmojis into all aspects of the App. This has caused issues, because many find these new 3D Bitmojis ugly and lacking the same charm and appeal as the original Bitmoji designs.
Why Did Snapchat Change Bitmojis to 3D?
Snapchat has been vague about the change, and has not said specifically why they have been changing Bitmojis to be 3D. While the original 2D Bitmoji design still exists on Snap Map, profile pages, friend codes, and other sections of the app primarily use the, arguably uglier, 3D Bitmojis.
The official Bitmoji website, however, has launched a new page called Bitmoji For Games. While no games have been launched yet, it looks like the Snap plans on launching games that feature user’s Bitmoji avatars. This is taking clear inspiration from other Metaverse games in which players use their customized avatar.
Can You Disable 3D Bitmojis?
Unfortunately, there is no way to disable 3D Bitmojis. Snapchat has been pushing this change across the App, and it looks like the 2D Bitmoji design will continue to get replaced.
Overall, it seems Snapchat is planning to integrate further into the Metaverse with its 3D Bitmoji designs, however they have had some growing pains in its soft launch.
However, Snapchat commands one of the biggest and most engaged userbases in the social media world, so it has the opportunity to break into the Metaverse in a very impactful way.
