In a prediction, Snapchat was said to be having another big competitor in the business. And that is no other than Apple.
Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel once said that “We face significant competition in almost every aspect of our business. This includes larger, more established companies - like Apple."
It didn't take that long until that prophecy came true.
In Apple's 2018 annual Worldwide Developer Conference, CEO Tim Cook unveiled Memojis, an updated version of Animoji that is also very similar to Snapchat’s Bitmoji.
The feature was first demoed by Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi.
He said that "We wanted to take Animoji even further. You can now create your very own, personalized Animoji."
Memojis are avatars that evolve from simple emoticons that were popular on online communities when most of the internet were still text-based.
Since the internet became more popular and internet connection came to more places with faster speeds, thanks to mobile devices that also became popular, everything on the internet changed. Those visual graphics evolved to become GIFs and emojis, which were adapted to platforms like Twitter, Messenger and many others.
With practically the entire internet inside people's pockets, tech companies have created apps and communication tools to make the world even smaller and personalized. Stickers started becoming popular, followed by the likes of face filters and lenses with apps like Snapchat and Instagram.
And with Memoji, things are going to the next level. This is the starting line of another bandwagon where visual emotions are becoming even more personalized and immersive.
Memoji allows users to turn their face into an emoji of their very own. Users can customize them to look similar to their face. And using the front facing camera of the phone, it works just like Animoji as it tracks users' facial expressions and head movements.
To use Memojis, users can open the Messages app and start typing a new message.
Then in the place where they would normally select Animoji, they can swipe right to start creating custom Memoji. Users can customize their Memoji "avatar" using things like eyewear, facial hair, accessories and others. After finished customizing, they can send off the Memoji, download it as a sticker, or use it in FaceTime chats.
Memojis utilize Apple's Face ID technology. What this means, the feature is only available for iPhone X users using iOS version 12.
The feature follows Snapchat's Bitmoji which is very similar, as well as Samsung's AR Emoji which was released in 2017.