Huawei is preparing to launch its flagship P30 and P30 Pro smartphones at the Mobile World Congress tradeshow in Barcelona next month. Ahead of the reveal, new details about a feature planned for the handset have emerged.
According to technology blog LetsGoDigital, Huawei has filed for a trademark for a new software feature known as 3D CuteMoji. If this comes to pass, it'll be a super-advanced version of the 3D Live Emoji feature shipped with the Huawei Mate 20 Pro or, dare we say it, quite like Apple's Animoji and Memoji.
Since the launch of the iPhone X in September 2017, several manufacturers have unveiled three-dimensional, emoji-like avatars which use the phone's front-camera to map the user's face onto a cute panda, scary robot, or giant, talking poop.
Samsung refers to its version of the technology as AR Emoji, Apple uses Animoji, while ASUS uses the branding ZeniMoji.
On the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, the AR lens functionality was known as 3D Live Emoji, or Qmoji in some markets. Like rival devices, Huawei device owners can select an avatar, record a message, and then delight friends and family with a short clip of them, disguised as a cartoon cat head.
Until now, the avatars available on Huawei devices have been limited to animals, including the aforementioned cat, penguin or lizard.
According to the latest trademark application, Huawei is planning a new feature known as "3D CuteMoji" that will likely add more human characteristics.
This sounds rather similar to the Memoji feature introduced with iOS 12 last year for iPhone X and iPad Pro 11-inch or iPad Pro 12.9-inch owners. Samsung also added the ability to create human avatars with a likeness to the smartphone owner with the launch of the Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8 Plus at MWC 2018.
The flagship smartphone model, Huawei P30 Pro, will be the first Huawei-branded handset with a quadruple camera set-up – the same as the Samsung Galaxy A8s.
