Meta's newest experiment in artificial intelligence hatches from an egg and asks about your day. Built along Tamagotchi lines, Waddle World lets players raise a pixel pet that doubles as a diary, rewriting their spoken or typed account of the day as a journal entry with a doodle, and for now it is available only in the Philippines, on iOS and Android, to users over 18, TechCrunch reported. The original Tamagotchi wanted food and attention, while this one also wants to hear how your day went. Whether it travels beyond one country remains the open question.
The app lands amid a broader push to put Meta's AI in front of billions of people. More than 3.5 billion people use at least one of its apps daily, and its Muse Spark model and upgraded Meta AI were the first release from Meta Superintelligence Labs, Mark Zuckerberg told investors in April. Waddle World is a far smaller bet by comparison, released so far in a single country.
The pet also looks like a software cousin of hardware Meta has already shown. At its Connect event in September, Zuckerberg unveiled Muse Charm, a keychain-sized device with a tiny screen for the Muse agent's avatar, and said it would ship in time for the December holidays, TechCrunch reported. Both products wrap Meta's AI in a small, friendly character designed to be visited often.
The careful wording around what Waddle World is not reflects the climate for AI companions. Journaling and casual games sit closer to wellness apps than to open-ended conversation. Rivals have faced lawsuits alleging their companion products harmed teenagers, and Meta's adults-only age-fencing and rejection of the "chatbot" label keep the app at arm's length from that category. For now the pet lives in one country, and Meta has yet to say where it goes next.