Intro
AI Avatar is a free app where your VRoid (VRM) avatar cheers you with all its might.๐ค It lives in your VS Code sidebar (reacts to Claude Code / GitHub Copilot) or browser side panel (reacts to ChatGPT / Claude). Animations and speech bubbles all run without AI too.
This time I have three main topics.
- ๐คCatbot Integration
- ๐ขAI Office
- ๐บCat Mode
Let's see how they are!
Catbot Integration
I was asked to collaborate with my DEV Community friend @annavi11arrea1 Catbot. Catbot is A galactic robot cat you can talk to from any device โ and a harness that lets you switch between (or combine) all of your AI models.
https://github.com/AnnaVi11arrea1/catbot
I was happy about this offer because I loved Anna's creativity and cool designs. I added the features below to AI Avatar to integrate Catbot.
- Launch Cat button: With this button, AI Avatar can run Catbot.
- Catbot with button: This makes Catbot stay beside AI Avatar.
- Cat Boss button: This changes the AI Office boss from a VRM avatar to Catbot.
Cat Mode
Many people feel that animals are healing and soothing. It is close to the AI Avatar concept of cheering people up. So I decided to add Cat Mode. I added the features below to make it look like a cat.
- Cat-like text, "Meow/Purrr" in English and "ใซใ๏ฝ" in Japanese
- Cat emojis
- Cat pose animations
- A new avatar with cat ears and cat whiskers.
To tell the truth, the hardest part of making this mode was adding whiskers to the avatar using Blender. I can do basic things in Blender, but it is too difficult for me, even with the help of AI, just to add whiskers. It would be more fun if I added other animal modes too.
AI Office
AI Avatar displayed only one avatar. I thought it could do more things if it displayed several avatars at once. So I added AI Office mode. Two avatars are displayed and talk and move around when idle, and they also make a communication animation when using AI or clicking. I made one avatar a boss and one a worker. The hard part of making this mode was the timing of communication between the avatars. I tried to make the speech bubbles not overlap one another and made the flow sequential to show them one by one. Now there are two avatars, a boss role and a worker role, but I might add more avatars to display at once and add more roles. You can also change the boss to Catbot and make a Cat Office too.
Richer contextual messages
In my previous post, I had a comment that contextual messages are one of the best features of AI Avatar. So I also added more patterns of messages this time. Speech bubbles are one of the core features of AI Avatar, so there is never too much to update for this part. I would like to add even more patterns in the future.
| Priority | Condition | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Special day (holiday) | "Happy Halloween! ๐" |
| 2 | Monthly greeting | "Happy New Year! ๐" |
| 3 | Session count milestone | "10th reaction today! ๐" |
| 4 | Long gap since last reaction | "Welcome back! Missed you ๐" |
| 5 | Long session | "You've been at it for an hour! ๐ฅ" |
| 6 | Day of week | "Happy Monday! Let's go! โก" |
| 7 | Time of day | "Good morning! โ๏ธ" |
| 8 | AI / fixed pool | Normal reaction message |
TTS update
I am using Kokoro TTS for English speech. However, it has a delay compared to Kokoro TTS for Japanese using VoiceVox. VoiceVox was running on a server, but Kokoro wasn't, so I tried to run a server for Kokoro too. And the delay got better than before. My PC is low-spec with 8 GB of memory and no GPU. So it should work even better on your PC or any other user's PC.
README Update
README kept getting longer as I updated AI Avatar. It has become hard to scroll to the sections users want to go to. So I added links inside for a better user experience.
- Link at the bottom to go to the top
- Link at the top to go to the Japanese version
- Links in Roadmap and Features to go to Details
Maybe I should make a website for AI Avatar to make it even better, like a mini navigation menu on the left to make it easier to go to sections. Also, making mini fun tricks on a website would be fun to create.
Build Fast
As AI Avatar grew, it was taking more time to compile. So I made a command to reduce the compile time. This update is not for users, but the development process got better.
How to Use the AI Avatar VS Code Extension Version (Thank you 200+ installs!)
You can download the AI Avatar VS Code extension in two ways.
Option 1: Install from VS Code:
Extensionsbutton in the left sidebar > Search AI Avatar >Installโโ
Option 2: Install from the VS Code Marketplace: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=web-developer-hyper.ai-avatar โโ
How to Use the AI Avatar Chrome Version
Install from Chrome Web Store: โโ
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ai-avatar/afmcfaeaaojalninahhhjnonhmlmiidi
Special Thanks
- My friend and CDO (Chief Design Officer)๐คฃ, @rutenveil helped create the cool effects in version 15. and keeps supporting me. Thank you very much!
- My DEV Community friend and CTO (Chief Technology Officer)๐คฃ, @gramli helped update AI Avatar in version 2, and keeps supporting me. Thank you very much!
- My DEV Community friend and CMO (Chief Marketing Officer)๐คฃ, @itsugo. Our avatar collaboration project was the beginning of AI Avatar, and keeps supporting me. Thank you very much!
- My colleague Maximum Blue helped make unique avatars in version, 6 and keeps supporting me. Thank you very much!
Version 18 Update
I'm already working on the version 18 update. More fun updates, so please stay tuned!
Outro
Ah! It's time to feed Catbot some yummy treats, so I have to go now. I would love to add more fun features and also use the latest AI in my next updates. I hope you enjoy the new updates to AI Avatar. Thank you for reading, and have a fun AI Avatar life!
Comments Welcome!
- Do you have any ideas to make AI Avatar even more fun?
- Do you have any ideas to add more AI features?
- Do you have any ideas for making cool avatars and animations?
- Do you have any ideas to improve the user experience?
- Do you have any ideas for increasing the number of users of AI Avatar?
Any other comments are also welcome!
Top comments (22)
The Catbot integration is such a fun addition, especially the Cat Boss option. I like that itโs not just an external bot being launched, but can actually become part of the AI Office experience. And Cat Mode with the cat-specific expressions, poses, and avatar details is such a fun touch. Really fun project! ๐บ
Thank you for your comment! ๐
It was fun integrating Cathot into AI Avatar!
Cat features have a lot of variety, so I might add another one in the future.
Fun wins over everything!
Cat bot and ai avatar looks amazing ๐๐
Thank you, my dear Candy Pink! ๐ป
Thanks ๐ My best wishes for you to hit 1K+ downloads soon! You totally deserve it โค๏ธ
That's a long way to go. ๐ตโ๐ซ
But I might get there with supporters like you! ๐ช
I appreciate your energy and enthusiasm, and you did such a great job implementing Catbot! Excellent work taking the lead on adding him in, it's nice to be able to work with another developer on the other side of the planet, so cool! Thank you for giving me the opportunity. It is clear that you are invested in your project and care very much about it. You are a beacon of light in an unforgiving landscape @webdeveloperhyper ! ๐ฆโจ๏ธ
Thank you for the collaboration! ๐
I love CatBot, so I'm happy to integrate it.
Especially, the design and the legs are cool!
CatBot can do even more, so I'm looking forward to the feature updates too!
We sure had a big time difference! ๐คฃ
Yes we did have a big time difference! haha ๐
Man, itโs honestly crazy seeing how far AI Avatar has come from where it started. ๐ญ
I still remember our avatar collaboration being one of the things that kicked this whole journey off, so seeing it grow into Catbot integration, AI Office, Cat Mode, TTS, all these animations, and now 200+ installs is genuinely really cool to watch.
And thank you for mentioning me as your CMO ๐ I don't know if I deserve the title, but I'm definitely happy to keep cheering you on and watching you turn every update into something more fun than the last one.
What I like most is that you never seem to lose the original spirit of the project, you keep experimenting and adding things simply because they're fun. That's probably a big reason people enjoy following the journey.
Keep going man. Can't wait to see what version 18 brings!!!!
Thank you for your comment! ๐
Yes, fun is my biggest motivation for moving forward.
I always start by planning to add cool and useful features with up-to-date technology, but somehow I end up focusing on fun when the update is done. ๐คฃ
Great idea with CatBot and the worker-boss conversation too! ๐คฃ
Btw, how did you manage to speed up the compilation time?
Two update plans for boss-worker conversations:
The full build took 30 seconds.
By skipping the Chrome version build, Kokoro TTS build, type checking, and building only the VS Code version, it took 10 seconds.
3 times faster! ๐จ๐จ๐จ
What I find interesting here is the shift from AI simply generating responses to becoming part of the user's working environment. The contextual messages based on session length, time, and activity are a small feature, but they show how much more useful an assistant can feel when it reacts to context rather than waiting for a prompt.
Thank you for your comment! ๐ Yes, speech bubbles are a core feature of AI Avatar, so I'd like to add more patterns and messages to make users feel like they're having a real conversation. But I also want to keep it from becoming too complicated.
Great update! It would be interesting to see a Catbot in the form of a Maneki-neko โ it will surely bring more users or money to your project๐ฐ๏ธ
Haha! ๐คฃ I want to make a paid plan called the Maneki Neko Plan that costs $200/month. It will call in money and make me a millionaire. ๐ฐ Oops, not me, the user should be the millionaire.
Wow! nice man. you are getting really good with the avatar.
Thank you for checking!๐
With all the supporters like you, I can keep updating it.
Please stay tuned for more updates!
No problem! It sound good
Loved the Catbot integration. I shared it with a few friends too! With the progress youโre making and all the fun updates still to come, Iโm sure weโll hit 500 soon and then 1K! Fingers crossed ๐ค
Thank you for your support!๐ Word of mouth is a good way to increase users. If each user recommends it to just 3 new friends 7 times, that's 3 ร 3 ร 3 ร 3 ร 3 ร 3 = 729 new users. I should try to make AI Avatar something that users want to share.