Animated Emoji wars heat up as Samsung partners with Disney on AR Emoji

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

In case you missed it, animating yourself as various AR (Augmented Reality) Emoji characters is now as important as the specs, camera functionality and design of today's flagship phones.

The gauntlet was thrown down by Apple last year when it made Animoji a key feature of the iPhone X. Being able to talk and match facial expressions with various emoji animals was the sexy feature for one hot minute and led to a short deluge of TV ads and Animoji Karaoke videos.

Apple's Animoji did resonate with many users, although I'm not sure if they were a defining feature for people to consider purchasing the iPhone X.

Samsung had its own version attached to the Galaxy S9. This feature, called AR Emoji, tried a different tact by allowing users to create their own characters which are eerily accurate. It looks like Samsung has made some power moves and licensed beloved characters Mickie and Minnie Mouse from Disney, which are now available as AR Emoji options on the Galaxy S9 and S9+. Is this an exclusive deal or will we see cross platform Disney emoji-ing in the near future. Considering that Disney own Star Wars and Marvel, the sky's the limit in terms of Emojiable characters and its clear this is content people will likely be happy to pay for.

iOS has more Animoji animals slated in an upcoming software update (including a lion and a dragon), none of these are marquee characters. Since the Apple Watch has Mickie Mouse and Minnie Mouse watchfaces, it stands to reason they'd want the animoji rights as well, no? I want to see what happens next in the burgeoning emoji wars and I'm excited to see more characters make it to the smartphones.