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  "path": "/2026/05/19/apple-acquires-animato/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-19T09:07:43.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.macrumors.com",
  "tags": [
    "Animato",
    "Apple Acquisition",
    "Call Annie",
    "Animato Studio",
    "App Store",
    "Call Annie website",
    "Apple Vision Pro",
    "FaceTime",
    "Apple Taps Virtual Avatar Firm Animato's Expertise and Intellectual Property",
    "MacRumors.com",
    "Discuss this article"
  ],
  "textContent": "Apple has quietly agreed to hire employees and license intellectual property of Animato, a small California-based company that has developed software for creating virtual avatars used in video chats and tutoring, according to a European Commission filing spotted by _MacRumors_.\n\n\nThe acquisition was filed under the EU's Digital Markets Act in January 2026, and appears to be what's known as a \"structured acqui-hire.\" In other words, Apple is able to make employment offers to certain Animato employees and receive a non-exclusive license to the company's intellectual property, as well as acquire its patent applications.\n\n> Apple Inc. (\"Apple\") will have the right to make employment offers to and hire certain employees of Animato, Inc. (\"Animato\"), receive a non-exclusive license to Animato's intellectual property rights, and acquire Animato's patent applications. Animato develops and distributes software that creates virtual avatars for video chats and tutoring.\n\nAnimato was founded in October 2022 by Francesco Rossi, who previously spent seven years at Apple before leaving to start the company.\n\nAnimato is best known for a free app called \"Call Annie,\" which launched in April 2023, and gave ChatGPT a real-time animated avatar face, allowing users to have video-style conversations with the AI chatbot.\n\nThe app later moved into language learning by offering avatar tutors for practicing English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin, and Korean through video conversations.\n\nAnimato also came out with a macOS virtual camera app called Animato Studio that let users make themselves appear as fantasy figures and anime avatars during video calls and live streams.\n\nBoth App Store listings have since been removed following the acquisition, and the Call Annie website says the app has been discontinued.\n\nIt's Apple's second acquisition of a digital avatar company in just over a year. In January 2025, Apple acquired technology, IP, and physical assets from TrueMeeting, a company specializing in the development of digital avatar technology for meetings.\n\nApple already offers avatar-style technology with Memoji on iPhone and its Personas feature on Apple Vision Pro, the latter of which generates a realistic digital representation of the user for FaceTime calls.\n\nTags: Animato, Apple Acquisition\n\n\nThis article, \"Apple Taps Virtual Avatar Firm Animato's Expertise and Intellectual Property\" first appeared on MacRumors.com\n\nDiscuss this article in our forums\n\n",
  "title": "Apple Taps Virtual Avatar Firm Animato's Expertise and Intellectual Property"
}