Emojis are based on Unicode but I'm trying to figure out how Apple's Memoji (eventually the extension Animoji) works.
When a Emoji gets sent from an Apple device to an Android, there's no doubt that the recipient receives an image / bitmap of the Emoji which is sent via Cellular Network and as MMS.
When an Emoji is sent from Apple to Apple device (i.e. iMessage), I'm wondering if it is not rather sent as kinda Vector Graphic instead of Bitmap. The reason why I'd assume so, is that once the Emoji is used as Animoji (e.g. Facetime effect) - thus be linked to a 3D Model of ones face - I cant imagine that a bitmap is a very feasible way to go.
Another reason why I would imagine that a vector graphic would make more sense, is that the multitude of different possible flavours (even though the face features of a Memoji are known and limited) would make a technology like unicode pretty complex for that purpose.
Last but not least, I sent one of the new Memoji (iOS 13.4) to an older iPhone (iOS 12.x) and it was capable of displaying it. Which makes me assume that it cannot be achieved with a unicode table...
My Question to anyone out there, is it known or even public knowledge what graphic technology is used to represent an Apple Memoji? If yes, may you enlighten me ;)