Apple just reached an agreement with the California-based virtual avatar company Animato. The tech giant is not buying the startup completely. Instead, it is bringing on select employees and licensing the technology behind the virtual characters. This smart move gives the iPhone maker early access to new software tools and top talent without triggering the heavy government reviews that usually come with full business buyouts.
The company gains character software and avoids a full buyout
Animato is known for a popular app called Call Annie. It gave a real-time animated face to chatbots and helped people practice languages through video calls. The startup also built a tool for Mac computers that lets users turn into fantasy figures during video chats.
Under this new arrangement, the iPhone maker gets a non-exclusive license to use those intellectual property rights and patents. The smaller company will also send some of its team to work directly for the tech giant to help develop new digital tools.
This is the second time in a short period that the company has focused on digital avatar technology. It previously grabbed assets from TrueMeeting, another firm working on virtual faces for video calls. It already offers character tools through features like Memoji on the iPhone, and this new agreement will likely expand those options.
The tech industry relies heavily on these partial deals right now. A brand can quickly grab the software it needs while avoiding the long delays of official takeovers. By snapping up this specific technology and team, Apple wants to build better virtual character tools for its future devices.
