If Apple adds something new to its last iPhone, six months later Samsung copies it for its next flagship Galaxy S. Together with iPhone X Apple introduced the Animoji feature, which uses the TrueDepth camera to capture your facial expressions and create animated characters from it.
Six months later, Samsung unveiled the AR Emoji feature on the new Galaxy S9. The essence of the function is the same: it creates animated emoji that mimics your facial expression. Unfortunately, the Samsung copy is not as advanced as the original, and is very different from it.
Animoji
Let's talk about Animoji first. Apple uses the TrueDepth system on iPhone X to create a complex 3D map of your face. The system allows the front camera to follow your facial movements. Animoji can only be created in Messages iOS 11 to iPhone X, but can be shared in other apps. You can choose from 12 characters. Among them are dog, fox, monkey, panda, chicken, etc. After choosing a character, you can record a video with him for up to 10 seconds. The character will not only repeat your facial expression, but will also record your voice.
Once you have recorded your video, you can select a different character before submitting it. It will capture all your facial movements and your voice.
AR Emoji
Samsung AR Emoji is powered by a front-facing 8MP camera with f / 1.7 aperture. Before using the function, you need to configure it. The process is pretty straightforward. You will need to take a photo of your face with a closed mouth smiling. Using machine learning and photography, the Galaxy S9 will create an animated character that looks like you. The end result looks more like Snapchat's Bitmoji rather than Animoji. Like Animoji, the AR Emoji feature can read your facial movements, but judging by the early demos, it doesn't work very well.
Then the AR Emoji character can be customized by changing his hairstyle, accessories, etc. You can open your character very quickly through the keyboard or in messages. It can be shared as a GIF or PNG, or as a sticker in supported apps.
Samsung has a very interesting take on AR Emoji. If you don't want to use a character with your looks, Samsung offers an alternative in the form of Mickey and Minnie Mouse. The company did not reveal much about the feature at the launch, so it is not yet known if there are any other Disney characters.
Now let's move on to the main differences between functions.
# 1 Accuracy
Animoji uses a sophisticated TrueDepth system on iPhone X to create a 3D map of your face. Some even think that the system is too complicated, but due to this it is as accurate as possible.
Samsung uses only the front 8MP camera of the Galaxy S9 with f / 1.7 aperture. Because of this, the AR Emoji character does not closely mimic your facial movements. In addition, the function often creates a completely different character from the user.
# 2 Customizable
On iPhone X you can select only a ready-made character out of 12 currently available, who will record your voice and copy your facial expression. With update iOS 11.3 there will be more characters.
AR Emoji can be customized by changing your character's hairstyle, clothing, skin tone and glasses. If you wish, you can not use the character as yourself at all. Instead, you can choose Mickey or Minnie Mouse, which will repeat your facial expression, and then you can send them to your friends and family. You can't do that with Animoji, so AR Emoji has the advantage in this case.
# 3 Ability to share
To create an Animoji, you need to go to Messages. Then you can record the video up to 10 seconds and send it only to those users who have a device with iOS. Animoji can also be shared in GIF format on social networks.
Sharing AR Emoji is much easier. After customizing the character, it is saved as a collection of 18 GIFs that can be easily opened via the keyboard in any application and shared there. You can also share AR Emoji in GIF and PNG formats.