Sunday, February 10, 2019

Memoji and Avatars

Memoji is Apple's first attempt at having avatars represent the user. Memoji currently are in use for iMessage and FaceTime. Animoji and Memoji are largely considered boring and gimmicky, which I agree with. So, why does Apple try to push these so much? Could Apple be trying to make Memoji have the same glory as Nintendo's Miis? If so, let's see the divide between the two.

Miis were released with the Nintendo Wii in late 2006, before the original iPhone was released. As a very quick synopsis, they served a simple purpose, to represent the player in a game and to bring personality to the console. It makes sense for a game console to do something like this, but for a phone to do this seems weird.

Phones don't really need to have a representation of the user in them, especially when it can take photos of the user. The most representation of a user a phone usually gives is through a contact photo or a wallpaper. These are two elements that are explicitly determined by the user. Seeing a contact's photo when you receive a call is meant to feel natural and as an augmentation of reality. Let's say Apple makes it so the caller's Memoji appears making random facial expressions when you receive a call. It definitely doesn't feel natural. Sometimes it's better to leave things more simple.

I think timing could also be a major factor in the perception of Memoji. Miis came out in a time where superimposing a face on a player was a big deal. In addition, emoji weren't even a mainstream thing yet. Today, we've been oversaturated with emoji, to the point where some people can find it cringey at times. It's completely hypothetical if Apple decides to integrate Memoji into iOS further this year, but many will agree that the focus of iOS 13 should be put into any number of other areas. I don't think there would be riots in the streets if we went a year without any new emoji-related features.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please keep comments constructive and don't use any foul language. Feel free to share your ideas, feedback, experiences, and more. Please know that I will read them. Thanks!