Meta announces Horizon Worlds avatars are getting legs using an AI model to predict the body's position, an avatar store, avatars are coming to Reels, and more
Meta's Horizon avatars will be getting legs. So far, the company's avatars have weirdly just hovered off the ground …
The VergeJay Peters
Context & Ripple Effects
Meta had already extended its updated 3D avatars across Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram Stories through a cross-app avatar rollout. The Horizon announcement pushes that identity layer toward more expressive embodiment, short-form video, and virtual goods rather than keeping it confined to a single VR setting.
The execution record also matters: Meta later said its Connect legs segment used motion-capture animation, and legs did not reach Horizon Home’s public test channel until 2023. That gap makes the distinction between a visual demonstration and a shipped avatar capability central to the announcement.
First-order effects
Meta broadens the role of its avatar system across Horizon Worlds and Reels while opening an avatar-store purchase surface for digital clothing.
Horizon users are promised AI-predicted lower-body movement, but Meta’s subsequent motion-capture clarification raises the delivery bar for the feature shown at Connect.
Second-order effects
A shared avatar across Meta surfaces makes clothing bought through the store more valuable than a Horizon-only cosmetic, strengthening Meta’s incentive to maintain a consistent identity system.
Meta’s stated plan to let developers sell avatar clothing turns the store from a catalog into a prospective creator distribution channel, putting curation and revenue-sharing at the center of the platform.
Third-order effects
If Meta delivers these capabilities across its apps, avatars become a persistent platform identity with commerce attached, rather than a feature limited to individual social or VR experiences.
The later rollout delay suggests that lifelike avatar embodiment will be gated by product readiness as much as by promotional demos, shaping how quickly virtual-goods ecosystems can scale.
The trend: Meta is combining cross-app digital identity, more lifelike avatar animation, and creator-sold virtual goods into a broader avatar platform.
I just assumed every FB employee got a gratis headset for meetings; I was shocked to learn they don't. I know they pay people well enough to afford them already, but BOTE math says they could outfit the whole workforce for ~$25M, which is a rounding error. https://www.nytimes.com…
I have to assume that there are people who have been working for years on metaverse related companies that are ripshit that Zuck put Facebook's stink on the term “metaverse.” It would be like Comcast changing their name to “Internet” in the mid-90s https://twitter.com/...
Just to be clear, the bosses are showing off how they got legs before all the employees and the employees are very excited about that? https://twitter.com/...
It makes me laugh so hard that tech orgs like this gatekeep jobs, have horrid hiring practices and steal ideas and .... THIS is the best they can produce... it is so deliciously mediocre😂 https://twitter.com/...