Apple has acquired Animato, a California-based virtual avatar company, through a structured acqui-hire deal filed under the EU's Digital Markets Act in January 2026. The agreement allows Apple to hire select employees and license the company's intellectual property, marking another strategic move into digital avatar technology for video communications.

Animato, founded in October 2022 by former Apple employee Francesco Rossi, developed software that creates virtual avatars for video chats and tutoring. Their flagship app "Call Annie" launched in April 2023, giving ChatGPT a real-time animated avatar face for conversational interactions, later expanding into language learning with avatar tutors supporting multiple languages.

The company also created Animato Studio, a macOS virtual camera app enabling users to appear as fantasy figures and anime avatars during video calls. Both applications have been discontinued following the acquisition. This represents Apple's second avatar-focused acquisition in just over a year, following the January 2025 purchase of TrueMeeting.

Apple already offers avatar technology through Memoji on iPhone and Personas on Vision Pro, which generates realistic digital representations for FaceTime calls. This acquisition strengthens Apple's position in the growing digital avatar market as remote communication continues expanding across consumer and educational sectors.