WhatsApp confirms you can no longer create new Avatars, but existing stickers will stay [Updated]

Update 04/05/26 – 09:05 am (IST): The folks at WABetaInfo have now even obtained a screenshot of the notice that pops up in WhatsApp informing users about the removal of avatars. The pop-up says, “Soon you will no longer be able to edit your avatar,” and “your avatar will also be removed from your profile photo.”

Original article published on April 23, 2026, follows:

WhatsApp is officially killing off the ability to create new avatars. According to updated support pages, the company has already disabled new avatar creation, and soon, existing avatars will be wiped from user profiles entirely.

WhatsApp quietly updated its FAQ documentation to state that users can no longer make new avatars. They also warned that editing will be disabled shortly.

If you already have a personalized digital face, there is a small bit of good news. Your existing avatar stickers will still be available to use in your channels and chats, at least for now. You just open your emoji tray and pick a sticker like you normally would.

But once they remove the editor, you are stuck with whatever clothes and hairstyle your avatar currently has. Deleting your avatar is now a permanent decision. The support page explicitly warns that if you delete it, the action cannot be reversed.

Tech sleuth Radu Oncescu first spotted the change on X, sharing a screenshot of the updated WhatsApp FAQ page. 

Just keep in mind that you can still send a social avatar sticker in an individual chat. That is the unique sticker showing both your avatar and your contact’s avatar together. But both of you need to already have avatars set up and have each other saved as contacts.

You can also still use them to react to status updates. You simply tap a status, swipe up, and pick an animated sticker. But that entire system is starting to look like a legacy feature running on borrowed time.

We have seen WhatsApp make a lot of aggressive changes lately. Just a few days ago, we reported that the app is cutting off support for older Android phones
later this year. They are also slowly pushing out a new paid Plus subscription to upgrade the messaging experience.

That said, it feels like, at the same time, Meta might be cleaning house and stripping away features that simply failed to catch on.

There is no official word yet on the exact date when avatars will vanish from profiles completely.

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