​Samsung’s AR Emoji versus Apple’s Animoji - How Emoji Paved the Way for These Giants

Smartphone giants Samsung and Apple continue battling each other for the top spot as the best smartphone manufacturer. This time, the battleground is through emojis.

When it came to emojis, Apple bested all the other smartphone manufacturers through Animoji, an exclusive feature of the iPhone X. They were the first to use augmented reality.

However, Samsung released Galaxy S9 and S9+ and with it came an exclusive feature similar to Animoji. But the use of AR is the only similarity between Apple’s Animoji and Samsung’s AR Emoji. All this does raise the two questions of: “Which set of exclusive and upgraded emojis is the best?” and “Why go to all these lengths for emojis?”

Apple’s Animoji

Animojis are these animated characters that are based on the existing emojis in Apple’s iPhone X. There are a total of 16 characters which includes a fox, pig, cat, alien, robot, and even the infamous poop emoji.

How this works is that the 3-D in front of your device picks up the expressions on your face. The Animoji then mimicks these movements and creates an animated emoji. This all happens in real-time so when you smile or open your mouth, the Animoji character will do the same.

These Animojis can be sent to your friends and families through iMessage or even when they aren’t iPhone X users. These can be sent via SMS. You can also save these emojis on your Camera Roll or as .mov files.

Samsung’s AR Emoji

The AR Emojis have almost the same features as Animojis. However, Samsung's version is a customizable avatar that is supposed to look like the owner and then mimic their facial movements.

Samsung has instructions pertaining to how you should take a selfie so be sure to follow that. Then, you’ll be turned into a 3-D avatar where you’ll be able to customize how it will look. Change the hair, the skin color, clothes, and add accessories if you want.

Samsung combines your own portrait with a simple 3-D software and so you can also add a few more additions such as facial hair. However, the customization is rather basic. You only have limited options and you won’t be able to change the eyes and facial shape as you would with various video games.

For those who aren’t interested in these sort of avatars, Samsung is planning to include Disney and Pixar characters soon. You can use Mickey and Minnie and play with their facial expressions.

When it comes to sharing, Samsung has more choices. You have the ability to share it in any channel you like as text, video, email, or as a social media post. Record yourself singing, speaking, or making any expression. Samsung also automatically creates keyboard stickers. There are 18 predetermined poses and they are all animated. Your emoji is also saved as GIFs so you can share it with non-Samsung users and other apps.

Why are emojis popular?

To answer this question, we have to dive into the popularity of emojis and how they changed throughout the years.

Emojis were first born in 1999 when a Japanese artist named Shigetaka Kurita invented them for mobile phones. Since then, they became widely popular in Japan. They were likely fashioned after emoticons which were just plain symbols combined to look like faces and expressions.

Their popularity spread like wildfire and in mid-2000’s emojis went international. These were available on several apps and can only be put in your text message through copying and pasting them.

In 2011, Apple added an emoji keyboard to allow their users to use them anytime and with ease. A couple of years later, Android followed suit. Since then, everyone has been using emojis to create emotional nuances to once flat messages.

Now, emojis have become a part of the technological world. It allows everyone to set the mood with their messages. They can even communicate through emojis without using words.

Suffice to say, its popularity might have been the main reason why Apple and Samsung decided to create animated emojis.

The issue with emojis

People are having problems with their emojis when it comes across as different from one phone to another. For example, you’ll be sharing the grinning emoji and it ended up as the sad emoji on Windows or Android phones. It’s been one of the biggest issues of Samsung users who’ve tried this feature.

A lot of Samsung’s emojis looked different on social media and other phones. If you want to choose the correct emoji, you’ll have to try them all to make sure you don’t mix up the emotions you’re trying to send.

Samsung Experience 9.0 was an update that launched in February that changed the look of the previous emojis they had. There weren’t any new ones but the company decided to fix some issues and change the way their emojis looked. The latest update, Samsung Experience 9.1, went on to continue making subtle changes to how the emojis looked.

Apple, on the other hand, just recently introduced 70 new emojis on their collection. The new emojis are part of the iOS update 12.1 that was just released this October. Some new emojis brought a wider variety of faces such as red hair, curly hair, and gray hair emojis. There are also more sports emojis for tennis, lacrosse, and skateboarding.

Which is better?

To answer which of the emojis are better is largely subjective as it depends from person to person. Some factors may also come in play such as whether you’re more of an Android user or an iOS fan.

However, when it comes to customization and sharing options, many see AR Emoji as a good choice. When it comes to animation, many believe Animojis win as they are able to capture your facial expression better.

As a whole, the votes are split. But there are also other users who prefer the Animoji as some users say that the AR Emoji is more creepy than cute. It may be because it doesn’t actually get your physical features correctly. A lot of Samsung users say their avatars didn’t look anything like them.

A better experience

Upgrading to the newest phones can create a better experience, thanks to its exclusive features. However, you can also upgrade your experience by choosing hardware that could maximize your phone usage as well expand its lifespan.

iCoverLover has just launched our newest tempered glass protectors and cases for iPhone X, iPhone XR, and iPhone XS MAX as well as for Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+. Check out our shop and browse some of our cases like the ones below:

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