How to Use Animojis in iPhone X

New to iPhone X, animojis are an innovative way of expressing your emotions during a text conversation. Using the front-facing TrueDepth camera, animojis make the heads of the cute animals mimic your facial expressions and movements.
Since animojis must be recorded before they are sent as messages, they can even be saved in your iPhone for later use. An animoji is saved in .MOV format that can be played as a separate file in any supported video player.
What Else Can You Do With Animojis?
There are a couple of things you can do with the animojis. For instance, you can:
[listNum]■Send them to the recipients while messaging (primary use)
■Use them as stickers in your message threads
■Send them as video attachments using different messaging apps
■Record them using one animal head, and before sending to the recipient(s), scroll through different animals to make them mimic your already recorded expressions and movements, and pick the one that you think is best.
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What Devices/Apps are the Animojis Compatible With?
At the time of this writing, although the animojis can be created only on iPhone X, they can be sent to the recipients having pre-X iPhones, and even to the Android users as well. However, unlike iPhone recipients to whom the animojis are sent as iMessages, the animojis are sent as MMS to the non-iPhone users.
Here’s how you can use animojis in your iPhone X:
Record and Send Animojis

■Get to the Messages window
Tap the Messages icon from the Dock. This opens the Messages window from where you can reply to an existing thread or create a new one.



■Open an existing thread or create new
Tap an existing thread or tap the Create New icon from the top. This opens a thread that already has your conversation or creates a new thread respectively.



■Open the Animojis pane
Tap the Animojis icon next to App Store from the bottom. This opens the Animojis pane with the first animal head in the center, and a list of other animal heads in the left. You can scroll the list to pick an animal of your choice. Alternatively you can tap the up arrow from the top of the pane to view all the available animal heads on your screen.



Note: If you can’t see the Animoji icon, tap the App Store icon next to the Text Message or iMessage field to view all the available options.
■Pick your favorite animal head
Tap an animal head from the list. This selects the head, closes the full view pane (if opened), and places the head in the center.



■Test your animoji
Looking at the screen of your iPhone X, move your face and change your expressions as needed. This makes the animoji mimic your actions. At this point, you can try different animojis from the list and pick the one that you like the most.
■Record an animoji
Tap the Record button, change your facial expressions and/or move your face, and tap the Stop button when you’re done recording. This records the animal head in action (maximum 10 seconds long, and with audio) while it mimics you, prepares the animoji to be sent to the recipient(s), and plays the recorded animoji for you to review. Even at this point you can scroll through different animal heads, and your recorded expressions and movements will be mimicked by those you pick. Choose the animal head that mimics your expressions in the best possible way.












■Replay or delete a recorded animoji (optional)
Tap the Reply icon that appears at the right after the animoji is played once, or tap the Delete icon. Tapping the Reply icon plays the animoji again, whereas the Delete icon when tapped deletes the animoji from your iPhone.



■Send the animoji

Tap the Send button. This sends the animoji to the recipient(s).


Post Sending Animojis’ Actions
After you’ve sent an animoji, it can be saved for future use, copied to be re-used, or deleted. Here’s how:

■Get the animoji’s options list
Long-tap an already sent animoji in an existing thread. This opens a menu with different options to pick from.
■Save or copy the animoji
Tap Save or Copy from the menu. Tapping Save saves the animoji as .MOV file in the Photos app in your iPhone X, and tapping Copy copies it to the clipboard, and you can paste the animoji in your new messages.






Note: You can also tap More from the menu, select the animojis you don’t want, and tap the Delete icon from the bottom-left corner to delete the already sent animojis from the thread.






■Get to and play the saved animoji (optional)

Go to Photos > Albums > Videos, tap the animoji you saved, and tap the Play button when the animoji is in the full screen view. This plays back the recorded animoji. From here, you can tap the Share icon from the bottom, and use the sharing options normally as you do with other video files.


Use Animojis as Stickers
As discussed above, you can even use an animoji as a sticker in your existing thread. Here’s how:

■Capture an animoji’s expression
In an existing thread, pick an animal head, make it mimic your facial expression and movement, hold your head and expression for a while, and tap and hold the animoji on your iPhone’s screen. This pauses the animoji’s position for as long as you keep holding it.
■Use the animoji as a sticker

While holding the animoji, drag it on to an already sent message, and release the animoji when the text gets selected. This places the animoji as a sticker next to the text in the thread.