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Animoji are a set of digital avatars created by
Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...
, based upon symbols of animals and mythical creatures from their Apple Color Emoji typeface. Unlike standard emoji, Animoji are 3D models which can be custom-animated using facial motion capture to reflect the user's own facial expressions and utilize
lip sync Lip sync or lip synch (pronounced , like the word ''sink'', despite the Hard and soft C, spelling of the participial forms ''synced'' and ''syncing''), short for lip synchronization, is a technical term for matching a Speech, speaking or singin ...
to appear to speak audio messages recorded by the sender. The name is a portmanteau of "animated emoji", referring to this ability. Certain Animoji also use audio modulation features to change how the voice of the character sounds when recorded. Animoji can be accessed from the
iMessage iMessage is an instant messaging service developed by Apple Inc. and launched in 2011. iMessage functions exclusively on Apple platforms – including iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and visionOS – as part of Apple ecosystem, Apple's approach t ...
app on supported devices and can embedded on top of users in
FaceTime FaceTime is a proprietary videotelephony product developed by Apple. FaceTime is available on supported iOS mobile devices running iOS 4 and later and Mac computers that run and later. FaceTime supports any iOS device with a forward-facin ...
calls or on video recorded in Clips. A set of static expressions for each character, themselves based on other popular "smiley" emojis, are also available as a set of iMessage stickers and are available on devices without Face ID support. Despite their similar appearance to standard emoji, Animoji have no relation to the
Unicode Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...
standard and are simply sent across devices as image or video files.


Memoji

With
iOS 12 iOS 12 is the iOS version history, twelfth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., Apple. Aesthetically similar to its predecessor, iOS 11, it focuses more on performance than on new features, quality improvemen ...
, Apple expanded upon Animoji by implementing customisable Memoji, which can be designed by the user using different facial features and clothing options to create avatars of themselves or others. Subsequent updates have included further customisation options, including the introduction of visual representations of disabilities through devices such as
cochlear implants A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted neuroprosthesis that provides a person who has moderate-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss with sound perception. With the help of therapy, cochlear implants may allow for improved speech unde ...
and oxygen tubes which can be added to an avatar. A standalone Memoji app was implemented on Apple Watch devices with watchOS 7, allowing users to create and adjust their avatars from their wrists. A watch face featuring both Animoji and Memoji characters was also introduced. Critics have mentioned that while the feature is a "fun exercise", the limitations of Memoji creation mean that not everybody will be able to create an avatar that looks like them.


Characters

Animoji are available in the following characters: *Mouse (🐭) *Octopus (🐙) *Cow (🐮) *Giraffe (🦒) *Shark (🦈) *Owl (🦉) *Boar (🐗) *Monkey (🐵) *Robot (🤖) *Cat (🐱) *Dog (🐶) *Alien (👽) *Fox (🦊) * Pile of Poo (💩) *Pig (🐷) *Panda (🐼) *Rabbit (🐰) *Chicken (🐔) *Unicorn (🦄) *Lion (🦁) *Dragon (🐉) *Skull (💀) *Bear (🐻) *Tiger (🐯) *Koala (🐨) *T-Rex (🦖) *Ghost (👻)


History

Apple had created 3D models of all standard emoji prior to its late-2016 OS updates from which the static default 2D graphics had been rendered. A select set of these models are being reused for creating still images and short animations dynamically. Animoji were first unveiled alongside the announcement of the
iPhone X The iPhone X (Roman numerals, Roman numeral "X" pronounced "ten") is a smartphone that was developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is part of the List of iPhone models, 11th generation of the iPhone. Available for pre-order from September 26, 2 ...
, as the feature makes use of the device's TrueDepth camera to achieve facial tracking. A total of twelve characters were available upon release, with a further twelve made available in later updates.


References

{{iOS Apple Inc. software Virtual avatars