Oliver Haslam·

Apple Responds To Claims That iPhone X Animoji Could Work On Older Devices

Love it or loathe it, there is no denying the fact that Apple’s Animoji feature is one of the most impressive of the newly released iPhone X. Animated emoji that take their queues from the user’s facial expressions while also using recording their voice, Animoji have taken the internet by storm and have even been responsible for a karaoke craze that is simply impossible to avoid on social media.

While exclusively an iPhone X feature, claims have begun to surface that Animoji could work on older iPhones – something Apple has now denied.

The claims appear to have come from various online sources including YouTuber MKBHD, or Marques Brownlee to his mother, with the belief being that as Animoji do not use depth tracking data provided by the TrueDepth camera system, any iPhone could theoretically create the animated emoji. However, Apple has now confirmed that this is not the case at all and that all of TrueDepth’s tricks of the trade are used in order to make Animoji work.

If Apple were, it says, to port the feature to older versions of the iPhone, then the quality of the finished animation would be lacking.

The original claim gathered traction because it was believed that Apple was purposefully keeping a marquee feature back for the iPhone X when there was no technical reason it could not also be made available to other iPhones. Now that Apple has confirmed that this is not the case, however, we can all perhaps go back to marvelling at just how popular a talking lump of feces can be.

As for the TrueDepth camera system, it is important to remember that Animoji is not its only claim to fame, with Face ID simply not being possible if it was not for Apple’s new front-facing camera system in iPhone X.

(Source: Marques Brownlee [Twitter])

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