Gboard bitmoji-like characters of yourself are on iOS (Update: Rolling out to everyone!)

Update, October 30, 2018 (4:19PM EST): Google’s Minis stickers are rolling out to Gboard on Android and iOS. The stickers are rolling out in all Gboard languages and countries. You can download Gboard at the link below and read the original article to learn how the Minis stickers try to replicate your looks with a selfie.

Update, September 13, 2018 (02:12PM EST): Google brought its Gboard Minis stickers to iOS devices earlier this summer, but didn’t give a specific timeline for when they would hit Android devices. Now, it looks like we’re finally seeing Gboard Minis in the latest version of the Android app.

Click the button below to make sure you are on the latest version, and you should see these new cute Bitmoji-like stickers as described in the original article below.

Original Article, August 27, 2018 (03:31PM EST): Last year, Google released a new sticker pack on Allo that allowed users to create Bitmoji-like avatars for themselves by simply snapping a selfie. Now, Google is bringing this feature to Gboard so that everyone can send “Mini” versions of their faces (via Engadget).

Just like with Bitmoji, the Mini sticker pack takes the user’s avatar and displays it on various backgrounds and in multiple forms. This abundance of options allows the person to send an image of themselves eating, singing, having a bad day, or almost anything else. 

As you can see from the GIF above, once the feature has rolled out to your phone, the setup process is pretty straightforward. All you have to do is open up the sticker section of Gboard, find the new Mini option, and take a selfie of yourself. From there, you can either customize the look of your character or start sending the custom stickers to your friends.

Google uses both machine learning and neural networks to create an avatar that roughly replicates the person’s look. This processing allows the animated character to include user-specific details like skin tone, hair color and style, eye color, face shape and facial hair.

Google is including 100 additional styles on top of the various designs that were released when the selfie sticker pack was released for Allo.

The Mini sticker pack feature is rolling out to Gboard on iOS right now. Unfortunately, Google hasn’t stated how long it should take the new addition to make its way to Android phones.