How Many Animoji Were Added in iOS 12

Apple expanded its lineup of animated characters in iOS 12 by introducing exactly four new Animoji to the Messages app. Alongside the debut of customizable Memoji, this update brought the koala, tiger, ghost, and T-Rex to compatible iPhone and iPad devices. This article outlines the specific characters introduced in the update and the enhanced tracking features released alongside them.

Apple officially added four new Animoji characters with the launch of iOS 12:

• Koala
• Tiger
• Ghost
• T-Rex

Before the iOS 12 release, users had access to 16 Animoji characters: the original 12 launched with the iPhone X in iOS 11 (alien, cat, chicken, dog, monkey, panda, pig, pile of poo, rabbit, robot, unicorn, and fox) and four additional characters introduced in iOS 11.3 (lion, bear, dragon, and skull). The addition of the four iOS 12 characters brought the total roster of standard Animoji to 20.

Beyond the new designs, iOS 12 enhanced Animoji performance across all compatible devices equipped with the TrueDepth camera system. The update introduced tongue detection and wink tracking, allowing characters like the tiger and koala to mimic a wider range of nuanced facial expressions, including sticking out a tongue or winking. Furthermore, iOS 12 increased the maximum recording limit for Animoji messages from 10 seconds to 30 seconds.