Sega Emojam Shows How Bandai Could Add Messaging to Tamagotchi
If you haven’t already heard, Sega released a new product in Japan, the Emojam. This is an emoji-only pager that allows you to communicate with your friends by the use of emojis. The Emojam is part of Sega’s Japanese-based kids brand LinkLink, which is themed around children's freedom and connection.
The device itself aims to bring back “pager culture” from the 1990’s while enabling commutation for the younger generation. The little page comes in two different designs, but also has some cases you can purchase to protect it, and spice up the look.
In order to communicate with another user’s Emojam you have to physically connect them together using the terminal at the bottom of each device, very similar to the Digimon V-Pet. Once connected, you can choose to be friends, which will enable messaging between the two devices anywhere there is Wi-Fi, so you can’t just message anyone without knowing them in-person.
Once friends, you can send up to 1,100 original emojis between devices, and these are not the standard Unicode emoji’s, there are unique emojis, and other characters emojis available to purchase as well. SEGA is selling dedicated download cards to add more emojis from other collaborations.
Sega mentions that sending these emojis is like solving a puzzle with a secret meaning between friends.
We have had some flavors of messaging on Tamagotchi in the past. If you can recall the Tamagotchi Friends device dating back to 2013 allow users to exchange text messages that were written in free text on screen. The messages were transmitted through NFC (near field communication) as the devices were “bumped” together. There was the ability to write, receive, view inbox, and even draft messages.
Later in 2018 with the Tamagotchi Meets, and of course in 2019 with the global equivalent, the Tamagotchi On, you were able to view your friends list within your notebook and choose “edit text” which then allowed you to type an open text message.
These messages would be transmitted to another Tamagotchi Meets/On/Some device after connecting for a playdate, gift, or any connection. You could view messages you’ve exchanged in the message history list, and even delete them too.
Then in 2020 with the Tamagotchi Pix allowed users to send and receive mail, but this was only for scheduling meetups, and you could only view a users greeting which is set on their profile.
Noticeably, the Tamagotchi Uni does not feature a messaging feature. Which is interesting considering the Tamagotchi Uni is all about uniting Tamagotchi users through the Tamaverse and Wi-Fi connectivity.
Could a future Tamagotchi include an enhanced messaging system similar to Sega’s new Emojcam? Let’s think about this. Bandai could enable messaging over Wi-Fi for users who have connected together in person, to ensure that users are not speaking to those they do not know.
Bandai could limit communication to preset phrases or even emoji’s (imagine customizable emojis of your character), but perhaps they could even communicate with open text too. Imagine being able to view your inbox on your Tamagotchi and communicate with your friends right from your Tamagotchi!
