News: Apple's Third Generation of Animoji Adds Memoji Customization & Stickers to Messages

Apple is giving iPhone owners even more options to express themselves via Animojis with a wide range of customization options for their personal Memojis.

During the opening keynote of the annual Worldwide Developers Conference in Cupertino, Apple revealed all of the updates coming to iOS 13. For Messages, the Memoji feature, enabled by the depth-sensing TrueDepth camera on the iPhone X series, can be used to create a cartoon doppelganger that looks more like the user.

This fall (the traditional time of release for each major iOS version), users will have options to add jewelry and piercings, makeup, unique hairstyles, glasses, hats, personalized teeth (that's right, grills), and even Airpods to their look.

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In addition, iOS 13 will be able to automatically generate Stickers from Memojis, which can be accessed through the keyboard and enable users to deploy their Memojis in apps outside of Messages.

Since launching with the iPhone X in Sept. 2017, Animojis have been the de facto face of Apple's push into augmented reality, with the animated caricatures starring in multiple TV commercials along the way. The feature also inspired the short-lived phenomenon of Animoji Karaoke.

After introducing a new set of characters in iOS 11.3, Apple introduced new characters and the personalized Memoji option at last year's WWDC. Memoji made it possible to for Ariana Grande to insert a virtual clone of herself for her "7 Rings" music video.

With ARKit absent (so far) from the WWDC keynote, it looks like Apple is leaning on Animoji to carry the AR torch for the company, at least in the near term.

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