Meta's Muse Charm Looks Like a Tamagotchi but Taps Gen Z Bag-Charm and Retro-Tech Trends

What is clear, according to TechCrunch, is that the Charm's form factor is on-trend. The device could appeal to Gen Z consumers who, in the post-Labubu era, have embraced dangling items attached to keychains and bags. The trend is part of a broader kitschy, retro-inspired shift in fashion and technology.

Gen Z has already created a market for dangling products. Lip glosses, hand sanitizers, sunblocks, fragrances, and other items have been turned into bag charms, primarily targeted at women. Hailey Bieber's viral Rhode lip case, which attached lip gloss to a phone case, helped popularize the idea that beauty products could also be fashion accessories. TechCrunch cited Vogue's report that the brand saw $212 million in annual net sales from roughly 10 products, as the company announced its billion-dollar exit to Elf Beauty.

The Labubu craze further expanded the category. Sales of the ugly-cute fuzzy monster bag charm exploded, helping Chinese retailer Pop Mart grow its revenue to $1.8 billion in 2024, a sevenfold jump from 2019. Demand for Labubu has since faded, but the decorative bag charm concept has not. One analyst firm estimates the global bag charm market will grow to more than $1 billion by 2030.

Today, bag charms can be characters, bedazzled beauty products, or other whimsical designs, such as Coach's cherry charms, a Gen Z favorite. TechCrunch reported that their popularity stems from their use as a means of expressing personality, much as people have long done through fashion, makeup, and jewelry. Meta's Muse is similarly customizable: users design their own avatar, making the AI agent a reflection of the user.

The Muse Charm's form factor also recalls the Tamagotchi, the pocket-sized digital virtual pet that became a major toy fad in the late 1990s and again in the mid-2000s. But TechCrunch noted that the Tamagotchi is not the most current reference. The Muse Charm appears to be a twist on how some young people already use their Apple Watch. Often meant to repurpose an older device, the Apple Watch keychain or charm concept has grown in popularity, fueled by TikTok videos showing different ways to use the watch when it is not on the wrist.

Retailers such as Amazon and Walmart, and marketplaces including eBay and Etsy, now offer thousands of Apple Watch keychains, straps, pendants, lanyards, clips, and bag charm cases in nearly every style. Younger women often adopt these keychain watches as fashion accessories first, rather than as technology, TechCrunch reported.

The trend intersects with a broader retro-tech revival. Digital cameras, flip phones, iPods, CDs, cassette tapes, home phones, and wired earbuds have made a quiet comeback. Young people describe addictive, algorithm-driven feeds and the soulness nature of technology as making them feel more disconnected, feeding a desire for tech they can touch and feel. One startup, Clicks, is bringing back a physical phone keyboard in a BlackBerry-inspired device.

For Gen Z, these physical objects help them feel more connected with the technology they use and offer a sense of control in a world where technology is so deeply integrated that using it no longer feels like a choice. Young women have been at the forefront of the trend, with some crafting portable mini computers called cyberdecks inside clamshell purses or custom cases, decorated with jewels, flowers, stickers, pearls, and other items.

Despite fitting the tech-as-fashion-accessory trend, Muse Charm is not guaranteed to succeed. TechCrunch noted that Meta has abused consumer trust over the years to such an extent that it may never fully recover. The tech giant settled with the Federal Trade Commission over charges that it deceived consumers by making users' private information public without their consent, and it has been penalized by the FTC for numerous privacy-related violations. In 2023, the FTC charged Meta with violating a privacy order filed after the 2019 settlement. Meta has also been repeatedly hauled before Congress over harms to minors, has lost or settled multiple lawsuits over the same topics, and has seen various whistleblowers expose its abuses. TechCrunch reported those privacy-related charges and penalties alongside the launch discussion.