Meta’s Muse Charm looks like a Tamagotchi, but it’s riding a completely different trend

Meta has announced Muse Charm, a small pendant that at first glance recalls the digital pet of the nineties, but in practice it’s surfing a much more current fashion wave. The device joins a string of AI gadgets that tried to conquer the consumer pocket — from Humane’s Ai Pin, through the Rabbit R1, to Friend’s pendant — and most of them have failed commercially. Reactions so far are mixed, but one thing is clear: the pendant format sits exactly on what young women and men are already wearing on their bags.

Pendants as a billion-dollar industry

This market didn’t start with Meta. Rhode, Hailey Bieber’s brand, went viral with a lip-case that attached gloss to a phone case, turning skincare into a fashion accessory; the brand generated about $212 million in annual net sales from roughly ten products alone, and was sold to Elf Beauty in a $1 billion deal. At the same time, Pop Mart’s Labubu plush dolls lifted the Chinese retailer’s revenue to $1.8 billion in 2024, seven times the 2019 figure. Even after the Labubu hype faded, the category remained: a research firm estimates the global bag-charm market will top $1 billion by 2030. Coach’s cherry pendants have become a must-have for Gen Z, just one example of how hanging objects serve as personal expression, exactly like jewelry or makeup.

An avatar that reflects the user

Muse Charm takes the idea a step further: the user designs their own avatar, and that digital character becomes the face of the AI agent. In that sense the pendant isn’t just ornament — it’s a physical interface for a language model that promises to be personal. The Tamagotchi comparison is obvious, but it misses the more contemporary reference: old Apple Watches repurposed as pendants, necklaces