Apple introduced Memoji as customizable animated avatars in 2018.
Memoji debuted with iOS 12 and allowed users to create personalized cartoon characters using features such as hairstyle, skin tone, facial details, and accessories. On compatible Apple devices, the avatars could track facial movements and appear in messages or video calls.
Memoji developed from Apple’s Animoji feature, which animated selected animal and character faces using facial tracking. The two systems are related, but Memoji focuses on user-created human-like avatars rather than only Apple’s preset characters.
Memoji is an Apple product and is not the same as the general Unicode emoji standard. Apple controls the feature’s software and artwork, while Unicode defines interoperable emoji characters that can be implemented across many platforms.