Video: 4 new Animoji characters in iOS 11.3—lion, dragon, bear & skull

Wanna boost your messaging game? How about spicing up your Animoji karaoke videos? iOS 11.3 has you covered with four distinctively new Animoji characters in the Messages app.

Apple this morning previewed the upcoming iOS 11.3 software update for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch ahead of the scheduled developer-only release later today.

TUTORIAL: How to create, save & share Animoji

While not all of the new features in iOS 11.3 will make the cut for the initial beta release—for instance, the controversial performance throttling feature and battery health information will be coming via a later iOS 11.3 beta release—you’ll find four new Animoji in the Messages app.

Here’s what they look like.

“Animoji have been a hit with iPhone X users, who’ve used their voice and facial expressions to record and send Animoji messages and even create Animoji karaoke videos,” says Apple.

As you know, this feature requires the TrueDepth camera and Apple’s advanced A11 Bionic chip in your iPhone X. Using depth mapping, machine learning and other sophisticated software techniques, your phone captures over 50 different facial muscle movements and applies them on the selected Animoji character which animates accordingly in real time.

TUTORIAL: How to convert Animoji to the animated GIF format

How do you like the new Animoji characters in iOS 11.3, which one is your favorite and why? Speaking of which, how do you like this feature so far?

And while we’re at it, have you used Animoji more than a few times already?

Let us know in the comments!