Snap is probably not notably eager on — no less than, not because it’s been articulated by Mark Zuckerberg — however the firm’s newest experiment actually sounds lots like a model of 1. The firm is teaming up with Universal to host a digital live performance that includes Jennifer Lopez and Colombian pop singer Maluma, which viewers can watch as their Bitmoji avatars.

The live performance itself gained’t happen within the Snapchat app, however would-be spectators can entry the present by signing into the live performance’s with their Snapchat login. Users’ Bitmoji avatars will seem as spectators within the crowd. There are additionally a handful of interactive results that will likely be out there through the present, together with the flexibility to start out “the wave” and set off a digital laser impact. Lopez and Maluma may even seem as 3D Bitmoji avatars.

The occasion, scheduled for February third, is supposed to advertise the upcoming rom-com Marry Me (additionally starring Lopez and Maluma), and is predicted to final about 10 minutes, in response to the corporate.

Virtual concert events have turn out to be one of many earliest examples of a expertise. Fortnite’s in-game are sometimes referenced in discussions of what an eventual metaverse will appear to be. And Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has mentioned he needs the Fortnite writer to be within the area. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has additionally concert events within the metaverse, writing final 12 months that sooner or later folks could possibly “teleport instantly as a hologram” with the intention to attend exhibits.

But Snap executives have talked concerning the metaverse very otherwise. Snap AR exec Sophia Dominguez in December that the corporate’s imaginative and prescient for the longer term is to not “escape into another world” however create experiences that may bridge bodily areas with digital ones. (Snap CEO Evan Spiegel put it barely otherwise, final fall on the dystopic origins of the phrase metaverse. “I think the basic notion was that you know as the physical world was sort of crumbling in this dystopian future that people would escape into this virtual world — that’s not at all a focus for us,” he mentioned referring to Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash.)

What’s much less clear is that if Snap intends for Bitmoji-led concert events to be a daily prevalence like Fortnite has (Live streaming platform is powering the tech behind the present). But if the corporate’s first large foray into metaverse adjoining experiences is a success, it’s not tough to think about Snap may host extra Bitmoji-driven stay occasions.