Alter originated as Facemoji, providing a platform for other developers to integrate avatar generation systems into various apps and games. Jonathan Slimak, Alter’s main co-founder, and operations officer, recently announced on LinkedIn that he was starting a job “creating Avatars at Google.” It’s unclear how Alter’s people and technology will help Google compete with TikTok. Google’s approach to the short-form video format, YouTube Shorts, is already a triumph for the firm. Google reported this past June that the platform has 1.5 billion monthly active users after a global launch in the summer of 2021.
