The Me Tile on your Nokia Lumia is a popular sight for any Windows Phone owner. It sits there, sliding from your photo to the word ‘Me’, and back again – occasionally showing notifications. It’s unmistakably Windows Phone. Now, you can replicate that tile and use it out of the Windows Phone environment as an avatar, thanks to Tile Me!.
[do action=”boxout”]Download Tile Me!
- Press the Search button on your Nokia Lumia and then tap Vision
- Scan the QR code
- Tap on the link when it appears on the screen
- Install the application from the Windows Phone Store[/do]
Tile Me! itself is a really simple app to use. However, if you want to use your newly created Me Tile-esque avatar on Twitter, things get a little complicated – we’ll walk you through that later.
Creating an animated Me Tile avatar
Once you’ve downloaded and installed Tile Me!, swipe the screen across so that you’re looking at the gif section.
Select the photo that you want to use, by browsing through your photo galleries. These include ones stored locally on your phone and also those from your online accounts.
Next up, choose the text you want to appear on the tile. By default, it’s set to ‘Me’, just like your real Me tile on your phone, but because this avatar is going to be used on blogs, or social media channels, using Me doesn’t really make sense. Change the text to something more appropriate for where you plan to use it – use your name, for example.
Just like on your phone, you can select which accent you wish to use for this tile. Select whichever colour suits you.
Then, generate gif animation.
Wait several seconds for that to be created and you’ll see what your new animated Me Tile on the screen.
You’ll need to upload this to SkyDrive, so sign in at this point tapping the SkyDrive icon at the top.
You can use that avatar anywhere where animated GIFs are supported.
However…
How to use an animated Tile Me! avatar on Twitter
Because Tile Me! produces high res avatars, the file size will likely be too big for Twitter – which means it needs to be scaled down to no larger than 700kb.
Upload your new avatar to http://www.gifreducer.com/ to create a a selection of reduced avatars and save the one that’s less than 700kb.
Of course, if your new animated avatar is already less than 700kb, ignore that step – but still follow the next one.
We’re not sure why, but uploading animated GIFs through the conventional way of simply editing your profile page won’t work. However, if you navigate here http://www.twitter.com/welcome/profile, it will.
Once you’ve uploaded your new avatar, select Done.
Now, your avatar will scroll from your photo to your name, almost identically as it does on your Windows Phone Start screen.
Show you’re proud to be a Nokia Lumia owner and create your own animated avatar for all to see.
Have you used Tile Me!?
Twitter tips courtesy of WPCentral