Now that you’ve got your $3,500 Apple Vision Pro, gone through the tutorial, and gotten the hang of things, it’s time to do the next best thing: make a Persona.

Personas are Apple’s name for a digital avatar of yourself for video calls. Or, in Apple’s words, a “natural representation of you that you can use to connect with others.” Aside from FaceTime, your Persona is also used with the EyeSight feature — you know, the ghostly eyes that appear on the Vision Pro’s front display. It’s created using image captures and 3D measurements of your head, face, upper body, and facial expressions.

But before you go run off and make a Persona, there’s one thing to keep in mind. Right now, Personas are in beta which means... they look kind of cursed. I’ve heard mine described as a soft focus ‘70s-style portrait and as a memorial photo like the ones used in obituaries. Hair often looks blocky, sort of like a non-playable character in a PlayStation 3 game. You’ll recognize yourself, but it won’t quite get everything right.

Personas have gotten a bit better since launch, thanks to software updates, but mine is still not what I’d call a fully “natural representation” of me. But it’s okay — you don’t have to make one, especially if you’re worried about privacy, since Apple is essentially taking photos of you to generate the Persona. (You can read Apple’s official Persona privacy policy here.)

How to begin

You’ll get prompted to create your Persona while you’re setting up the Vision Pro. But in the event you skipped that to explore other features, here’s how to get started.

• Press the digital crown, look at Settings, and pinch.
• Scroll down and select Persona.
• Select Get Started.
• You’ll be prompted to hold out your hands. Do this, and then wait until you hear the cue to take off your headset. But don’t take it off quite yet, because...
• ...a video will pop up with some pointers. You may want to watch it, because it’s helpful for getting a sense of what you’re supposed to do — especially since you will now take off the headset to continue making your Persona.

• Once you take off the headset, this is a good time to fix your hair and your makeup (if you wear any). You might also want to remove dangly earrings, earbuds, glasses, and hats.
• Hold the Vision Pro at eye level with the front display facing toward you. Make sure your entire face is within the circle that appears. Make sure that you’re holding the Vision Pro by its frame and not the light seal or straps. Those attach magnetically and can pop off if you’re not careful.
• Follow the directions to slowly look left, right, up, and down. There are arrows and sounds that give you clear visual and audio cues as to where to look and whether you’re doing it correctly. You may hear instructions to redo portions or adjust your facial position.
• You’ll also be asked to smile with your mouth open and closed, raise your eyebrows, and close your eyes.
• When capture is done, put the headset back on.

You should see a preview of your Persona. Bask in its cursed image. But there are still some things you can do to edit how it appears.

• You can select lighting styles. Natural is, well, natural, while Studio brightens everything up and Contour adds some extra shadowing.
• There are also sliders at the bottom that let you adjust the photo temperature and brightness. If you wear glasses, this is where you can swipe through various styles.
• When you’re done, tap Save. If it’s too cursed, you can hit Recapture and go through the process again.

It’s okay if you need to try making your Persona a second time. I’ve made three thus far, and here are a couple of tips:

• Open your eyes wide and exaggerate your facial expressions more than you normally would during capture. Inside the headset, I tend to have “resting sleepy face” and that makes my Persona look a little stoned. Starting out with wider eyes and bigger facial expressions has, according to my friends, resulted in my Persona looking more like me.
• Make sure you have good, even lighting. If you have funky light or really strong backlighting, you might end up with odd shadowing.

At this point, it’s imperative that you call your best friend or loved ones on FaceTime. This way, you can listen to them roast you. Better yet, if you know someone who has a Vision Pro, call them and the two of you can have a jolly time laughing at how your Personas turned out. I did this with our weekend news editor Wes Davis, and we had a great time guffawing over how his mustache would not move.

So long as you don’t go in with too high expectations, Persona FaceTimes can be a fun conversation starter with people you know. Have a lot of people laughed at my expense? Sure, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a blast in the process.