Apple’s iOS devices have their own dedicated messaging app known as iMessage. Back in 2017, the app got a pretty useful addition in the form of Animoji. As the name suggests, Animoji is an animated version of various popular emojis. Right from the famous pop emoji all the way to the cute panda, it was never short of variety. These Animojis mimicked your facial explanation in the best imaginary way possible.
Seeing the love and praise that the feature was receiving, Apple went ahead and made another useful addition. In the following year, Apple introduced Memoji. The major difference between it and the former was that Memoji was based on your avatar, rather than on any particular emoji. Consider it as a 3D facial expression of yourself. It also pretty neatly copied your expressions, right from shaking your head to the slightest of eyebrow raises.
But these were just limited to the iOS ecosystem and this infuriated the Android fanboys. This is where the open-source nature of this Google’s mobile OS comes in handy. Many developers took up the challenge of creating the emoji apps for Android on Play Store, it is quite an effort-taking job to search for the best one. But worry not, we took this job onto ourselves and did extensive research after which we came up with this list of best Animoji and Memoji apps for your device. Follow along. But before that, there is a small note to keep in mind.
Any Difference in these Apps and the iOS Default Animoji/Memoji?
Before getting on to the list of the best Memoji and Animoji apps, we would like to make one thing clear. Both, the Animoji and Memoji are possible thanks to Apple’s Face ID technology imbedded in its camera, which in turn takes the help of the True-Depth Camera System. But nothing as such exists for Android devices. It just uses your front camera to create an animated version of yourself. So you might not get that level of precision that Apple is capable of giving. With that said, all the apps still manage to perform much better than anticipated. So all of them are definitely worth a checkout.
Best Animoji and Memoji Apps for Android
Here are the Best Animoji/Memoji Apps like iOS for Android
1. Bitmoji
An app that needs no introduction. This is probably the most famous Animoji app available for your Android device and the closest you could get to the iOS counterpart. The app allows you to create a three-dimensional cartoonish avatar of yourself and modify it using the plethora of customization options available at your fingertips. From the basic hair colour and skin tones to even the deepest of detailing like the eyebrow colours and cheek lines, you could customize it all.
Furthermore, you also have the option to choose from a wide range of aesthetically pleasing outfits. Once you are done with your creations, you could easily share it across various different platforms. Using the app in Snapchat lets you unlock the Friendmoji feature, which allows for the creation of Bitmojis for you and your friend.
Apart from that, the app also has an in-built store which provides pretty interesting modifications. You could use your newly created avatar and place it atop various products like mobile cases, mugs, and other merchandise. But as everything comes at a cost, hence you would have to shell out some bucks for these commodities with your avatar printed on them. It’s also the most downloaded and reviewed app of its kind, with over a staggering 100 million downloads and close to 3 million reviews. In spite of that, it has managed to maintain a pretty impressive 4.6 stars rating. Definitely worth a try.
2. Bemoji
If Bitmoji is ruling the charts, could Bemoji be far behind? Starting the app, you’ll have two different methods of creating your avatar. This could either be done via the Facial Recognition or the Manual Creation. However, owing to its rather strange business model, you’ll have to pay to use the former feature. On the other hand, the latter, i.e. Manual Creation is completely free to use. Similar to Bitmoji, there exists an ocean of options to get your hands on. These include the hair colour, facial colour, face structure, lips, eyebrows, the colour of your eye and all the way to different shades of goggles.
Furthermore, you could even create your own customized GIFs using the newly created avatar. It also provides tons of clothes and related accessories, but again, most of them are hidden behind a paywall. Apart from that, the app also boasts of a huge collection of animations and GIFs which you could use along with your manually created avatar. This gives a completely fresh new feel to an otherwise monotonous look. If these features weren’t enough to surprise you, it also has this amazing functionality of filming 3D scenes with your avatar a part of it. After all, who doesn’t love to be a part of a movie!
However, some people still find quite an effort in switching to their preferred Animoji/Memoji app from there current instant messaging app on which they are chatting. Keeping this mind, the app has also launched a separate keyboard app dedicated just for this purpose. But keep this mind, not only this but any keyboard app could view all your typing activities. So if you are more of a security freak, then consider using the default keyboard app and the Bemoji app as a separate entity. The decision lies completely in your hands, mate!
3. Face Cam
Next in our list is the Face Cam app. This app is probably the newest one to set its foot into this domain. But it has surely upscaled the popularity charts in such a short span of time. Getting my initial impressions on this app, I found it to be carrying out some (rather weird) extra features, that maybe it could omit as well. For example, beginning with the skin colour palette, apart from the usual ones that every one of its competitors provides, it took it a step further by adding jet black, green, purple and even purple skin colour. I highly doubt anyone would ever opt for any of these.
Anyways moving on, the app has already taken the Christmas theme forward, which is good to see. Apart from the usual hairstyles, it also provides customized Santa caps to let you enjoy this festive season. Apart from that, the usual eyelashes, eyeballs colour, moustache and beard customizations are also available. It also includes a nice collection of face tattoos as well, but as you might have guessed, you’ll have to pay to use this feature.
But still, most of its free features work quite well and you’ll probably find it pretty interesting. Finally, when you are done creating your avatar, open the app’s camera and see the magic! It does the superimposition of your avatar over your body quite efficiently and manages to mirror your expression amazingly fast even in real-time.
4. Gboard Minis
This entry on our list of best Animoji apps might really surprise you. This is because not many of you might be knowing that your de facto keyboard app has an inbuilt Animoji/Bitmoji feature in the form of Minis. Most of the Android device already has Gboard as the default keyboard app. If not you could download it from the Play Store link given right at the end of this section. Then open any app on which you would be using and tap on the Minis icon, which would be just right to the Google icon.
Go ahead and tap on Create and scan your face in the camera that pop-ups and Google will then automatically create a character based on the image of your face that it scans. To begin with, the app presents you with three different avatars of your face. Tap on the Show me option to get an expanded menu of all your different avatars that it could create. The emoji set will be differentiated under three different sections: Emoji Mini, Sweet Mini, and Bold Mini. The first one is the artwork of Google, while the next two are from other developers. Just tap on the default section and you will then be presented with a humongous list of customizations. It probably has one of the maximum variety of hair types from all the apps in this list (well, except for the next one on our list).
Next up was the hair colour that was followed by the face shape and eye modifications. Again the app managed to surprise with the number of options to modify the eyes, right from the eye shape to eye colour and all the way to eyebrow shape thickness, distance, positions, etc. Similar was the case with nose, mouth, facial hair, facial marking and glasses as well.
Whereas other apps only provided one or two glasses, this app took it to an altogether different dimension. Not only the glass shape but the glasses frame, shape style, and colour – you name it and they have it. Not to mention the plethora of headwear, T-shirt and other accessories like an earring that it has to offer, and the app definitely packs in a powerful punch.
You even have the ability to customize your avatar based on numerous background scenes and stickers and effects. A single section had close to 70-80 different customizations of your avatar. Considering that it is blessed with three such sections, the app will surely leave you spoilt for choices. And you know the best part? All these features are absolutely free of cost.
Yes, not even a single penny needs to be spent out in trying any of these features. And the ability to directly access it from within your default keyboard further makes it scores quite high in the ease of usage rankings. Google seems to have done a great job, as far as these Minis are concerned.
5. MojiPop
To complement its long name, the app boasts of some long list of features as well. Starting the app, you will be having the option to either create your own avatar or choose from an existing one. It remains quite interesting to think of why anyone would go for the latter option. Anyways moving on, if you go ahead and scan your image via the device’s front camera, the app will create your avatar within seconds. It will then provides you with tons of customizations at your disposal, starting with the hairstyles.
Well, as already mentioned, the plentitude of options that it gives you for customization is astonishingly impressive. Apart from the usual hair, eyes, face structure and related options that other apps provide, it adds a little bit of extra into all of these features. What I loved the most about this app are the cool looking stickers that it creates out of simple monotonous selfies. Moving on, if your front camera is not able to get pretty decent quality images (due to lightning issues or not-so-great camera quality), the app also provides the option to import an already clicked image from your gallery.
One feature that I was desperately trying to find in other apps was the Search functionality. All these apps manage to sneak in tons of options but it really requires an effort in trying to look out for the desired one. This is where MojiPop manages to score big. With the provision of the in-depth search functionality, it really becomes quite easy to directly jump into your desired feature, without any fuss.
Furthermore, the app also provides a Social Avatar section using which you could easily share your modified avatars with your near and dear ones. For that, you’ll only have to provide your mobile number and sync your contacts with this app. Then everything else becomes quite a streamlined process. Apart from that, the usual sharing options to WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and other social media platforms are also available. On a side note, don’t forget to check out its store section. This is where its real power lies. There you could find various animated avatar of yourself across a varied domain (like emotions, festival, country theme, and others).
6. Zepeto
Concluding this list of the best Animoji and Bitmoji is the Zepeto app. This app works on a coin-based system. That is, you can customize your avatar and add further modifications to it using these coins. When you open the app, you’ll have to log in to it via FB, Twitter, email, etc, and on doing so, the app will reward you with 10,000 coins. You do also get some features that don’t require any coins, but they are quite a few and not exactly up to the mark.
By default, all the features will be arranged on the basis of Prices-low to high, so you might not get some good looking customization features on the home screen. Therefore don’t forget to change this sorting order onto something more meaningful. I went ahead with the highest prices first and the product ranges anything from 1000 to 3,000 coins. So I was able to carry out 4-5 customizations of the highest order just by spending the coins that I received via the login. Apart from that, you get the usual hair, beard, moustache, nose, ears and face structure. On the accessories front, you have lipsticks and goggles of different shades.
The app also boasts of an Instagram like feeds section where you can check out your friend’s creation as well. The various creation modes that it supports even includes an AR Camera and Photobooth. It also provides your own activity section where you can manage your created avatar and choose the mannerism in which your avatar should be seen by the rest of the world. You could also like someone’s stories, comment on it, share it with others or even try out someone’s else stylish avatar just through a single tap. That user’s avatar, right from his dress to his shoes will be superimposed on yours’. All these features really make it a standout app among all the others available on this list. Moreover, don’t forget to add hashtags to your avatar while sharing. This makes it reach out to a much wider audience.
Conclusion: With that, we conclude this guide on the best Animoji and Memoji apps. If you are looking out for the most stable with just the right amount of features and without much fanfare, go for Bitmoji. On the other hand, if ease of user experience is on top of your bucket list or you are currently running short on your pocket money, consider trying out the Gboard Minis. Finally, if you wish to make your avatar go viral across the globe, Zepeto will help you do just that. But in all, these were our recommendations. Which one would you opt for and why? We would love to hear out from you. Do drop in your views in the comments section below.
Credit – Sadique Hassan
This post was last modified on January 3, 2021 7:33 pm