Google has acquired Alter, an artificial intelligence (AI) avatar startup company.

TechCrunch has reported that the tech giant has acquired the company for about $100 million (approximately Rs 8,22,87,70,000).

For those uninitiated, Alter helps creators and businesses create AI-based virtual avatars to express their virtual identities.

According to the report, the acquisition comes as a part of boosting the content game and to compete with short-video platform -- TikTok.

While the acquisition was completed almost two months back. However, none of the companies made an official announcement publicly.

The report also mentions that some Alter employees have updated their Linkedin profiles that they’ve joined Google, without any official announcement.

The same was also confirmed by a Google spokesperson. However, he denied providing any comment on the financial terms of the deal.

As far as Alter as a company is concerned, it’s a US and Czech-headquartered- based company that started with Facemoji

It allowed developers to integrate avatar systems into their app or game which was later rebranded as Alter.

Meanwhile, Google has recently rolled out new custom emojis for its Chat to offer personalised experience to users.