Make Emoji Creations with Selfie Photos Using Google’s Gboard Application

Last year, Google released a sticker pack for the Allo chat application that allows users to create personal avatars with a look similar to themselves, based on selfie shots on a cellphone camera.

The ability to create similar Bitmoji avatars is now extended to Gboard keyboard applications that are also Google-made.

Like Bitmoji, this personal sticker pack called “Mini” on Gboard takes the user’s face as a reference avatar.

Then, a series of stickers were created which showed the user’s avatar doing various activities, ranging from eating, singing, in the middle of a party, and others.

As quoted from the Android Authority, Tuesday (08/28/2018), new options for creating personal avatars can be found in the stickers section in the Gboard application.

After taking a selfie, users can directly send avatars that are generated to friends via the chat application via Gboard.

The avatar display can also be adjusted first to match the taste. Behind the creation of Gboard-style Mini avatars, Google applies machine learning technology and neural networks to be able to display avatars as closely as possible with the look of the user’s face.

With these two technologies, details such as skin and eye colour, haircut models, face shapes, to the moustache and beard can be detected and added to the avatar.

Google rolled out the avatar feature gradually to the Gboard application on the Android and iOS platforms. It is still unclear when all users will get a share.