Apple acquires – Apple has acquired Animato, an avatar-software company built for video chats and lessons, a move the European Union surfaced under its Digital Markets Act rules. The purchase arrives as Apple keeps expanding its stack around AI and image tools, with a clear li
A low-profile avatar company has quietly slipped into Apple’s orbit, and the timing feels like it could matter to anyone who uses Apple Vision Pro for video calls.
Apple has acquired Animato, Inc, a firm that develops software for virtual avatars meant for video chats and lessons. The acquisition has not come with public fanfare from Animato itself—there appears to be no website, unless Apple has already removed it, and no social media presence.
The company’s footprint, for now, shows up mainly through LinkedIn. Animato was formed by Francesco Rossi in October 2022 and is based in the San Francisco area. On that same profile. Rossi says he previously spent seven years at Apple. starting in May 2015 in a Computer Vision department. There. he says he led “the work on the framework that runs inference of the deep learning networks that power the face and scene recognition features in Photos.”.
After that role, the profile shows he moved into software engineering management and later worked on “cool projects” in AI and Machine Learning in 2021. Rossi left Apple in 2022 to build his own company.
Apple’s acquisition only became clearly visible through a very specific channel: the European Union’s Digital Markets Act reporting. The EU revealed Apple’s purchase of Animato. Inc as part of listings the bloc requires companies to file when the regulator could consider an acquisition significant to users in the region. The EU says it publishes these listings no sooner than four months after it receives the information. For Animato, it has dated the acquisition to January 19, 2026.
That date may reflect when Apple filed its details rather than when the deal was completed, but the document timing still lands in a moment when Apple continues to buy companies in the AI and image industries—an expansion that includes work aimed at experiences like Apple Vision Pro.
Apple Vision Pro could see improvements to its Personas feature during video calls. and Animato’s stated focus—avatars designed for video communication—makes the connection feel less like speculation and more like a logical next step. The purchase also comes after Apple acquired firms that may help with new features in Apple Creator Studio. suggesting a broader push to strengthen the tools that sit between people and the technology they use to represent themselves.
Apple Animato Personas Apple Vision Pro avatar software Francesco Rossi Computer Vision Digital Markets Act EU AI deep learning Photos face recognition