Apple’s Animoji were first unveiled alongside the iPhone X. Apple announced the phone and the animated-emoji feature at its September 12, 2017 keynote, before the iPhone X went on sale on November 3.
Animoji use the iPhone X’s TrueDepth camera system to track facial movement and map expressions onto animated characters. The feature was closely linked to Face ID because both rely on the front-facing depth-sensing hardware hidden in the phone’s display notch.
The iPhone X launched with 12 Animoji characters, including the monkey, robot, cat and pile of poo. Later software updates added more. The iPhone XS was not the original launch device; it arrived in 2018 as part of the next generation. Animoji also differs from Memoji: Animoji uses animal and symbol characters, while Memoji lets users create a customizable humanlike avatar.