By Lindsey Schibelhut, Senior Reporter.
I remember when I first started texting. For the first time I was able to make faces using colons and parentheses to express how I felt. Move up a few years and we were then able to send real emojis to emphasize our feelings. From smiles to pizza the choices were endless. But even with all of the choices those emojis started to get stale. Which is why when I was searching around the Apple store I found the Bitmoji app. This app allows you to create your own emoji avatar that gives your messages that added spice.
To start using Bitmoji you will need to sign up by putting in your first and last name, an email address and a password or you can sign in using your Facebook account. Once logged in you can then start to design your avatar.
When designing your Bitmoji you have the option of being either a male or female, then you can choose to look like Bitmoji style (gives you a cartoon look) or Bitstrips style (makes you look more like your real self). From then on it depends on how creative you can be with your avatar on how realistic it will look.
There are plenty of features to pick from to aid you in your creation. You can choose a variety of faces, eyes, lips, noses, hair colors, makeup styles and you can also don a fancy outfit out of the Bitmoji closet. You can dress your avatar in the latest styles from Steve Madden, Tanya Taylor, Bergdorf Goodman, among others. During the holidays you can change your avatars style to something more festive too. For example, this past Christmas season they had replica sweaters to choose from the Seth Rogen film “The Night Before.”
The Bitmoji app is available for free for the iOS and Android operating systems. When you work with iOS it integrates well by adding the Bitmoji keyboard so it can be accessed whenever you use messages. They also added a new feature of categories. So, if you are looking for Bitmojis that say, “Hi” or “Grrr” or “Travel” you can find the emoji easier. Bitmoji can also be used with Twitter and Facebook. For this you will have to go into the app and save the Bitmoji image you want to use to your photo album and then when you want to post a status choose the image from your photo gallery and send it.
Overall, the Bitmoji app is really fun and it gives the idea of sending emojis a whole new twist. Ever since I’ve been using Bitmoji these are the emojis I always go to when messaging my friends. The only thing I would say they could improve on are the outfit choices by integrating combinations where you could put together your own outfits by choosing from pants, shirts, shoes, etc. instead of getting just the full pre-put together outfit selections. I’d also like to see more hair color choices by possibly allowing you to do an ombre effect where you could use multiple colors. But those are just minor complaints in the long run.
