TikTok just ripped off Apple's Memoji customizable avatars

Memoji on iPhone (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

TikTok has announced a new feature that will help people hide their faces when posting videos.
TikTok Avatars are customizable avatars that will move with your head and face.
The new feature will be instantly recognizable to users of Apple Memojis.

Introducing TikTok Avatars. Or Apple Memoji. It's hard to tell, but if you're posting to the video social network you'll need the former.

The new TikTok Avatars were announced via press release and will look immediately familiar to those of us who use Memoji on a daily basis. Just like Apple's offering, TikTok Avatars are "yet another way for people to showcase their individuality on TikTok."

To get started, open the effects section in the TikTok app and search for the Avatar effect. From there, you'll be able to customize your Avatar to fit your preferences. After your Avatar is ready, you can start recording videos. As you gesture and move, your Avatar will mimic your motion.

TikTok is already one of the best iPhone apps at what it does and the addition of Memoj-like Avatars is one that will surely help turn people into creators even if they aren't normally ones for showing their faces on camera. In that respect alone, TikTok Avatars are sure to be a winner and should be applauded. TikTok says that it will also take user feedback into account as it continues to develop the feature, including ensuring TikTok Avatars are as diverse as they should be.

Those who already have TikTok installed should find an app update ready for them to download in the App Store, while everyone else can download the free app afresh.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.

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