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Building upon two of our most popular Techspert articles: 30 Emoticons: How to Make Faces, Things, and Animals using Your Keyboard and Ask The Techspert: Emoticons and Emojis, I will cover another way of communicating without using letters in typed conversations: Memoji (Me + Emoji).

Apple introduced Memoji in 2017 with the release of the then-new iPhone operating system, iOS12. It is feature on the iPhone that allows you to create an avatar that looks like yourself and is capable of tracking your facial movements and voice to be shared with others in text conversions. Memojis are a fun way to personalize your text messages further and a massive upgrade from emojis.

Besides Apple’s Memoji, there are many other avatar maker applications on both the App Store and Google Play, with the most popular being Bitmoji, Samsung avatar, and Facebook avatar. 

How to create your Memoji?

1. In the Messages app, start a conversation and tap , then tap .
2. Tap each feature and choose the options you want. As you add features to your avatar, your character comes to life.
3. Tap Done to add the Memoji to your collection.

See the picture on the right for more context.

For Android users, when using most avatar maker applications like Bitmoji, the building flow process is similar.

Editing or deleting your avatar

Want to change a Memoji that you already created? You can edit the features (Clothes, look, hairstyle, etc.), duplicate an existing Memoji with new features, add an entirely new one or delete it.

1. Open Messages and tap the Compose button  to start a new message. Or go to an existing conversation.
2. Tap the Memoji button  or Memoji Stickers button , then select the avatar that you want.
3. Tap the More button . Then choose Edit, Duplicate, or Delete.

Is Memoji on my smartphone?

Apple made Memoji available on all iPhone models. However, only iPhones with FaceID can use animated Memojis thanks to their True Depth front camera. Other users can still create their avatars and use them as stickers. Check out the Apple Support video below for an overview of animated Memoji:

Unfortunately, the Memoji feature is only available on Apple devices. Android users can always find and use many avatar maker applications available on the Google Play store.

Next time rather than sending an emoji, make it a bit more fun, personal and dramatic by using a Memoji or any other avatar stickers.

Leave a comment below with any questions or input that you might have.

Techspert Jonathan is Senior Planet’s Sr. Digital Community Relations and Product Specialist and a former Senior Planet San Antonio technology trainer. He is also an iOS developer with a background in Information Systems and Cyber Security.

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