Microsoft has quietly announced that the Xbox Avatar Editor will be disappearing soon. “Due to low engagement and our shift in focus towards delivering other player experiences, the Xbox Avatar Editor app will no longer be available starting on January 9, 2025,” the company wrote in its FAQ about the feature.
The latest update to avatars came in 2018, as the Xbox Avatar Editor lets players customize cartoony versions of themselves with both a free and purchased library of cosmetics. These options provided lots of room for personal expression and diversity, such that you really could create a likeness of yourself, or whichever self you desired to show to the Xbox community. Microsoft confirmed that players will be refunded for Xbox Avatar Editor purchases that were made between November 1, 2023 and the end date of the app.
Player accounts got avatars back during the Xbox 360 era. However, these Xbox Original Avatars won’t be impacted by the departure of the editor. Rather, they will continue to appear for players utilizing these old-school images as well as on Xbox 360 hardware.
If you created an avatar that you want to preserve as your profile photo on the Xbox in the future, you can use the Avatar Editor app until the shutdown date to save a picture to your account. The Xbox support forums have a full explainer on how to create or upload your profile photo.