How to make Facebook's 'Avatar' characters that you can model after yourself

FACEBOOK lets you create personalised cartoon characters called Avatars.

Dubbed "Avatars", you can design them to look however you like and share them in Facebook comments and on Messenger.

Avatars are Facebook's answer to Bitmoji – a similar tool that was bought up by Snapchat in 2016.

Once you've created an Avatar, you'll be able to share them in different poses or scenes.

It's designed to spice up Facebook, and likely a bid to attract younger users back to the app.

"The Avatars feature lets you customise your own personal avatar for use in stickers across comments and Messenger," Facebook explained.

"It lets people create a new persona, allowing them to share across Facebook and Messenger in a more personal, light-hearted way."

Some of you may have already spotted Avatars in your Facebook app.

The firm released the feature in the UK, Australia and New Zealand last year.

Avatars became available in the US last week.

How to use Facebook Avatars

You should start to see a new smiley-face button when you go to post a comment on the News Feed.

It'll also appear within the Messenger sticker selection tab.

If you tap it, you'll be able to create a Facebook Avatar that looks however you want.

It starts with a gender-neutral face, which can be customised 18 different traits.

You can also edit body shape, hairstyle, outfit and more.

Once your Avatar has been created, you can share it across Facebook and Messenger.

Can't see Facebook Avatars? Make sure you've updated your app to the latest version.

It's also possible that Avatars hasn't been rolled out to your account yet, so sit tight and be patient for the update to arrive.

In other news, Facebook recently unveiled a new logo that is appearing across WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger too.

Facebook has redesigned its main app with a special 'News' feed that shows zero posts from pals or family.

The firm also launched a Dating feature that lets you find "secret admirers" in your friends list.

And read about some of the genius Facebook Messenger tricks you can try today.

Are you going to create a Facebook avatar? Let us know in the comments!