Get motivated by your Bitmoji with new Fitbit watch face

Fitbit and Snap have teamed up to create a fun new watch face for the Fitbit Versa and Ionic. There’s now a new Bitmoji clock face that updates throughout the day to reflect what you’re doing or motivate you to get moving. There are over 50 variations of your Bitmojis that respond to activities you’ve done or help motivate you to “create healthy habits.” Some of these include waving hello to start your day, dancing with your alarm clock, being on a treadmill after a great run, meditating when you are, and sleep walking when it’s time to go to sleep.

Source: Windows Central

Snapchat forces users to replace Snapcode profile pictures with Bitmoji

A new update coming to Snapchat is not sitting well with some of its users. The social network is forcing its users to put a Bitmoji avatar inside the ghost-shaped Snapcode frame instead of their profile pictures. It’s not an opt-in feature either. If you’ve ever created a Bitmoji account before, it’ll change on its own. If you haven’t it looks like you won’t be affected for now. Users have taken to Twitter to complain, some over losing their profile pictures and others to being confused about telling their friends apart because of the similar appearances of the Bitmoji. From the business end, it makes sense for Snapchat to try and promote Bitmoji after buying the company last year. That doesn’t mean its decisions still well with its users, though.

Source: The Verge

Snapchat brings Bitmoji shortcuts to both iOS and Android users

A few days ago we saw Snapchat testing out Bitmoji widgets of your friends for the Android home screen. But it looks like the feature isn’t limited to Android users anymore. In fact, Snapchat has taken the feature out of testing and into the hands of its iOS and Android users. For those using iPhones, though, you can only see the widget from the Today screen. If you’re on Android, well, then you can see that from your home screen like how it was done in the tests.

Source: The Verge

Apple patent looks to be taking on Bitmoji

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE

Looks like it isn’t just Facebook who’s taking cues from Snapchat. Apple looks to be creating an “avatar editing environment” which has a design an editing process that looks so eerily similar to Bitmoji. To be fair, the patent was filed back in 2011 but we can’t help compare the similarities. With Apple upping the game on its iMessage service, perhaps it’ll make sense for them to develop more features for it—including a 3D avatar model. As seen in some diagrams, it shows you can edit everything from hair color, eye color, skin color, etc. Based on the patent, though, it just won’t be used for chatting. It could also have applications in gaming, eye-tracking, and responsive action. Think of it as something you can use in virtual reality.

We don’t know if Apple will make use of the feature but there is a sense of ridiculousness in trying to patent this kind of feature. Bitmoji isn’t exactly new. Plus, if you remember avatar creation has been around for a while. Yahoo Avatar, anyone? Either way, let’s see what Apple decided to do with this.

Source: CNN + Mashable