Everything You Need to Know About iOS 12’s New Animoji and Memoji

Four new Animoji are being released with iOS 12 including a ghost, T-Rex, koala, and tiger. These new additions bring the total number of Animoji characters to 20. But it doesn’t stop at new animated creatures. Now Apple is letting users make even more animated emojis, but this time using their very own face.

? Animoji Available in iOS 12

? Introducing Memoji

That’s right, iPhone X (and other upcoming devices) will be able to create a new Animoji version of themselves—called a Memoji—and use the TrueDepth camera to animate it. Users can choose from hundreds of combinations using different skin tones, eye shapes, hairstyles, face shapes, and much more. You can even add accessories such as glasses, hats, and earrings.

In addition to new Animoji characters and Memoji, Apple also added tongue and wink detection. In my experience, winking doesn’t always work reliably, but both are nice improvement that gives users more freedom of expression. For added fun, try sticking your tongue out when using the robot, alien, or unicorn Animoji.

Animoji and Memoji can be sent as video clips or stickers. To send them as sticker just press and hold on them and pull them into your message thread.

FaceTime without Showing Your Face

FaceTime just got a little better as well. If you’re running iOS 12 on a device with a TrueDepth camera, you can now use Memoji, Animoji, stickers, and more while on the call. So if you’re like me and don’t always like showing your face, now you can show a more animated side of you, or even become an animal for fun. Users on iOS 11 are also able to see these effects.

? How to Create Your Own Memoji

Creating your very own Memoji couldn’t be easier and you can make more than one. You can even edit existing Memoji or make a duplicate so you can make minor changes.

To get started, open and expand the Animoji applet from the app drawer in iMessage (it has an Animoji monkey on it).

Now choose the “+” icon and start customizing. Here are some of the options you can customize:

1 Skin

Just like people, Memoji come in all colors. Unlike people, Memoji can also be pink, green, or blue; or you can be classic emoji yellow. You can choose from a myriad of skin tones to find the one that looks like you or best expresses who you are. You can even choose if you want freckles and, if so, how many.

2 Hairstyle

There are over 90 hairstyles to choose from. That being said, hair is a hard one to match. Find the style that best suits you and select a color. Like skin tone, there’s a large selection of colors to choose from and you can add highlights to get the perfect look.

3 Head Shape

Under the head shape option you can customize your age and chin. You can choose from three age options: young, old, or in between (I would love to see this changed to a slider). There are 15 “chin” styles to choose from to help you define your head shape.

4 Eyes

Your eyes help express yourself and with Memoji you can choose from a variety of colors and eye shapes. Colors come in traditional eye colors—including shades of hazel—and some more colorful options such as purple and red. Users can choose from more than 15 eye shapes and 9 eyelash styles.

5 Brows

To add a little pop to your eyes, find a pair of brows that match your own. There are many colors to choose from and more than 20 eyebrow shapes.

6 Nose & Lips

Nose options are a little limited. There are three button-shaped noses to choose from: small, medium, or large. Lips are a little more diverse—but only slightly—with nine options to choose from. There are also multiple lip colors and shades to choose from.

7 Ears

Ears also come in small medium, or large. Users can select one of 11 earring styles to add a little flair. To give you even more combinations, Apple lets you choose from 10 earring colors in multiple shades.

8 Facial Hair

Under the facial hair category you can choose choose to add short or long sideburns to your avatar. As far as facial hair goes, Apple must really have a thing for beards and mustaches as there are over 80 options to choose from. To give you even more options you can select beard color and add highlights.

9 Eyewear

Whether you need glasses to see or shield your eyes from the sun, Apple’s got you covered. There are twelve frames to choose from and you can choose the frame color as well as the tint color and darkness of the lenses. There are even gold, rose gold, and silver frame options.

10 Headwear

There are 25 headwear options ranging from baseball caps to turbans. You can even choose a Santa Claus-style hat to celebrate the holidays in style.

? Get Your Memoji On

Now that you have your own Memoji get out there and use it. Make FaceTime calls to family, record clips and send stickers to friends. Memoji adds a new level of fun to how you communicate with you friends and family.

Are you excited for Memoji? What do you think Apple did well? What do you think they should add? Let us know in the comments and on social media. Apple’s announcement is this Tuesday, September 12. It will be hosted from the Steve Jobs Theater at 10 a.m. PDT.