Before mobile phones, pagers were the coolest thing on the block. I can remember when my cousin got his first pager; he would show us all when he got messages from his friends, the words scrolling across the tiny screen like something out of a sci-fi movie. It was always doctors and nurses who seemed to have them back then, but he pioneered the tech on the mean streets of my tiny village. I can also still remember when his dad paged him to say ‘dinners ready, love you’, and he lost all his cool in an instant.
For many of our younger readers, the idea of a pager will seem like something that an archeologist has dug up or found while uncovering the secret mysteries of the pyramids. That’s all about to change, however, as Sega is bringing the concept back with their brand new device the ‘Emojam’, and its whole premise is around creating a new communication language based solely on emojis.
Meet the Emojam, a device that looks kind of like a Tamagotchi crossed with a Digivice but can be used to chat with your friends. It works exactly the same way as a pager except for the fact that you can only communicate using emojis, meaning that you’ll have to get creative in making up a language for you and your friends to use.
And you know what, I think it’s a great idea. I see so many kids glued to their phones these days, scrolling through social media and having access to everything and anything on the web. They’re growing up faster than we did, and this throwback to the 90s with a retro but colourful collectible vibe could just be the device that the world needs right now.
So how does the Emojam work? Well, it provides users with over a thousand custom-made emojis for the app. According to Creative Bloq, messages can only contain 10 emojis and you have to touch devices to add your friends, so there’s no chance of people getting random requests from users they don’t know. It all seems super safe and fun, which will probably put a lot of parent’s minds at ease. I can see Brandon buying 5 for his son and friends to start a group chat when he’s old enough!
As you might have guessed from the YouTube clip above, the Emojam will be released in Japan. It comes out this December and will cost ¥7,150, which is around £36/$46. I know it’s primarily marketed for kids, but I love the idea of this thing. It would be great to just have a business chat using emojis that didn’t have any distracting notifications from Instagram or Bluesky or Pokémon TCGP telling me I can open another packet of cards. Maybe Retro Dodo will solely communicate with Emojam pagers from now on; I wonder how I’d write ‘be right back, just playing Zelda’ in ten pictures?
