Source:
https://scmp.com/tech/article/2122090/new-apple-iphone-x-ad-features-singing-karaoke-poop-emoji-called-animoji
Tech

New Apple iPhone X ad features a singing karaoke poop emoji called an ‘animoji’

Apple add encouraging people to ‘animoji’ themselves attracts more than 300,000 views

Photo: Apple/YouTube

By Lucy Handley

What did the world do before emojis?

Those little icons people love to send each other to express themselves online are now so popular they have their own celebratory day and 5 billion emojis are sent daily on Facebook Messenger alone, according to Emojipedia.

Now, a new trend is set to sweep the iPhone world: the “animoji,” animated emojis that are only available on Apple’s US$999 iPhone X.

And of course, animojis are featuring in the latest iPhone X ad, released Monday night, showing the animated unicorn, monkey, panda, rabbit emoji and more, all bobbing their “heads” along to the song “All Night” by U.S. rapper Big Boi.

But it’s the poop animoji that “sings” first, a frowning face icon that first appeared in 2010 and has been replicated as various household objects including cushions, slippers and on baby-grows. The ad has been watched nearly 345,000 times via Apple’s YouTube channel since it was uploaded, part of a series of ads promoting features such as Apple’s facial recognition app Face ID and the fact that the phone will still “recognise” its owner in the dark.

The ad promotes sending the new animoji via iMessage, encouraging users to “animoji yourself.” The iPhone X also features animojis that copy a user’s facial expression. If someone smiles, an animoji monkey will mimic that almost exactly, using 3-D sensors on the iPhone.

Animojis have been sent around the world on Twitter since the November 3 launch of the latest iPhone, with people sharing clips of them doing karaoke to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and “Gasolina,” a hit 2004 Latino song by Daddy Yankee.

The iPhone X is Apple’s most expensive yet, and the tech giant claims that demand is “off the charts.”