Tech giant Microsoft's virtual keyboard app SwiftKey has received a new update in its Beta version that has brought 3D AR-based animal emojis – called 'puppets' – to the app.

The feature allows users to transfer their facial expressions to a panda, cat, dog, owl, or even a dinosaur and these 'puppets' are said to have been trained using thousands of images and videos of people making expressions to track and record facial movements, news portal 9To5Mac reported late on Friday.

Users would be able to record up to 30 seconds of video and audio to share but it requires a device running on at least Android 7.0 Nougat or above.

"People want to type fast, and SwiftKey is perfect for that… They also want to express themselves in a fun and interesting way, and now SwiftKey is perfect for that too," said Microsoft Product Manager Deepak Paramanand in a blog post.

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"We wanted to give SwiftKey fans a fun way to communicate with their loved ones beyond predefined GIFs," he added.

Microsoft acquired SwiftKey for a reported $250 million more than three years ago and it has since brought a number of new features to the app, including in-keyboard web search. (IANS)