“And in our new world, your digital representation of yourself becomes increasingly important and your ability to represent yourself and express yourself and interact with people becomes more and more important.” Or as Samsung says in its Galaxy S9 marketing: Words can’t say what your emoji can.

“We are moving into the future where the division between your life and your digital life is going out the window they are merging into the same thing,” Bitmoji founder Ba Blackstone said in a 2016 Forbes interview. While the popularity of these silly personalized emoji illustrations may seem perplexing-or downright idiotic-to those who don’t already partake, their rise makes sense if you look at the way our digital and personal lives have intertwined. While the timing of this update could be coincidental, the message is clear: Snapchat doesn’t want to yield its customizable avatar dominance to Apple. While Bitmoji fans have been able to use its third-party iOS keyboard to insert their Bitmoji creations in Messages and other apps, now Snapchat users will be able to use their Friendmoji’s as well-Bitmoji images that include both you and the contact you’re chatting with. Apple’s Memoji, announced nine months later, encroaches on this space, but Snapchat is fighting back. In September, Bitmoji leapt from the 2D sticker world to 3D augmented reality animations you can insert into your Snaps. Since then, Bitmoji has rapidly improved the customizability and realism of its cartoon-like creations as well as the variety of stickers users can see their visage applied to, including greetings, moods, and activities. From 2015 to December 2016, the app exploded: Its number of unique users grew 5,210 percent, largely aided by the March 2016 acquisition of its parent company Bitstrips by Snapchat, which quickly integrated the digital avatar-creating app into its own. It gained an early foothold with teenagers as a fun, popular messaging addition in 2015, the same year it was the subject of a New York Times profile. Bitmoji is the most notable personalized ’moji app available.

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