Xiaomi announces Mimoji as part of its CC9 phone series launch, a feature that appears very similar to Apple's Memoji
Jeremy Horwitz / VentureBeat :
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple's Animoji arrived in 2017, built on the iPhone X's face-tracking hardware to turn facial expressions into custom 3D emoji. Two years later, Xiaomi's Mimoji brings a near-identical avatar feature to its own CC9 series, aimed at the same selfie-driven audience Xiaomi has courted since its partnership with Meitu, which kept the selfie app maker involved in Xiaomi's camera software.
The copy is not isolated: later in 2019 Xiaomi shipped a high-end smartwatch whose button and twisting control knob closely echoed the Apple Watch. Mimoji extends that pattern from hardware design into software features, at Xiaomi's characteristic price points.
First-order effects
- CC9 buyers get an Apple-style animated avatar feature without buying an iPhone, directly undercutting one of Memoji's selling points as a reason to stay in Apple's ecosystem.
- Apple's Memoji loses its status as a differentiator exclusive to its face-tracking hardware, as the feature category goes cross-platform.
Second-order effects
- Xiaomi's Apple Watch lookalike smartwatch later the same year confirms the mirroring strategy is systematic, pressuring Apple to compete on capabilities that are harder to replicate than single features.
- Camera-adjacent software becomes Xiaomi's battleground for differentiation, building on the Meitu collaboration, while the CC9 line's momentum carries into the 108MP CC9 Pro a few months later.
Third-order effects
- If flagship software features keep migrating to mid-priced Chinese handsets within months of launch, Apple's premium is increasingly defended by integrated hardware and services rather than any individual feature.
- The pattern points toward Chinese vendors compressing the feature gap with Apple to near zero in consumer-facing software, shifting competition toward brand, ecosystem lock-in, and — as Xiaomi's later MiMo AI push suggests — platform-level technology.
The trend: Xiaomi is running a systematic fast-follow strategy against Apple, replicating its signature hardware designs and software features and shipping them at far lower prices.