Meta Taps Bag Charm and Retro-Tech Trends with Muse AI Device

Meta has introduced the Muse Charm, a portable hardware companion that attempts to steer consumer artificial intelligence toward wearable fashion accessories. The announcement follows a string of high-profile stumbles across the dedicated AI hardware category, where devices like the Humane Ai Pin, the Rabbit R1, and the Friend pendant have struggled to find mainstream traction. As reported by TechCrunch AI, Meta is framing the Muse Charm around visual youth culture rather than utility-driven computing.

The device operates as a customizable digital companion, allowing owners to design an avatar that mirrors their personal aesthetic. Its form factor evokes the Tamagotchi, the pocket-sized virtual pet that peaked in popularity during the late 1990s and mid-2000s. Meta’s pitch, however, leans into current Generation Z consumer behavior, where decorative keychains, dangling cosmetics, and personalized bag charms have become prominent style fixtures.

The broader market for dangling accessories has expanded steadily across novelty, fashion, and beauty retail. Consumers have increasingly attached everyday products—such as lip glosses, fragrances, sunblocks, and hand sanitizers—to bags as decorative charms. Notable commercial examples include Hailey Bieber’s Rhode lip gloss phone case, which supported $212 million in annual net sales across roughly 10 products before the brand’s billion-dollar sale to Elf Beauty. Pop Mart, the retailer behind the Labubu monster charm, saw revenue rise sevenfold between 2019 and 2024 to $1.8 billion. Analyst projections cited by TechCrunch AI estimate the global bag charm market will exceed $1 billion by 2030, reinforced by luxury and novelty items like Coach’s cherry charms.

This customization habit extends to hardware repurposing. On platforms like TikTok, users have popularized converting older Apple Watches into bag clips, lanyards, and keychains instead of wearing them on the wrist. Major online retailers and marketplaces, including Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and Etsy, now carry thousands of specialized smartwatch charm attachments, adopted largely as fashion accessories rather than fitness trackers.

The aesthetic aligns with a wider retro-tech revival driven by young consumers seeking tactile alternatives to algorithmic feeds. Older hardware categories—including flip phones, digital cameras, iPods, CDs, cassette tapes, landline home phones, and wired earbuds—have seen renewed consumer interest. Hardware startups such as Clicks have introduced physical smartphone keyboards, while hobbyists build decorative microcomputers known as cyberdecks inside clamshell purses.

Despite capitalizing on these design currents, Meta faces established headwinds regarding consumer trust. The company previously settled Federal Trade Commission charges over unauthorized public disclosure of private user data, and the agency charged Meta in 2023 with violating terms of its 2019 privacy settlement. The platform has also faced congressional scrutiny, ongoing litigation, and whistleblower disclosures regarding youth safety and platform harms.

Meta plans to monetize the Muse ecosystem by taking a cut of transactions made through the assistant, paired with its broader personalized advertising model. Whether consumers embrace the Muse Charm will depend on whether its charm-driven hardware appeal can outweigh persistent data privacy concerns.