If you ever thought that your text messages were missing the panache, you might want to check out this new app on the block. Instead of sending a boring wall of text or a voice message, Pixi Garden allows you to send animated AI characters that deliver your message with style.
What exactly is a Pixi Garden?
A Pixi is essentially a smart, animated 3D character that you drop straight into someone’s DM instead of typing out a message. Instead of reading your text, the person on the other end watches this character walk in, put on a little performance, and deliver your message.
Rachit Agarwal / Digital Trends
The company behind it, Pixi Garden, calls this concept “agentic media,” and honestly, I haven’t seen anything quite like it before. The app lets you both send and receive these characters, and they are not just restricted to messages either.
Rachit Agarwal / Digital Trends
You can task these characters to deliver jokes and play games like Tic Tac Toe and Whack-A-Mole. Currently, there are only three pixis on the app. There’s a cat, a robot, and an animated envelope. My only gripe with this app is that only the animated envelope can deliver the voice message, while the other two are restricted to text messages only.
Where and how do you even send a pixi?
The biggest selling point for me is that Pixi doesn’t want you to download another messaging app. Instead, Pixi Garden works right inside the Messages app, with support for WhatsApp and other platforms reportedly on the way. That’s a smart move, since nobody wants to convince their entire friend group to switch platforms just to send an animated character.
Rachit Agarwal / Digital Trends
In my testing, the messages I sent worked flawlessly. There was an issue with the talking envelope, but after a few attempts, it started working too. That said, the app is new, and it will take a few months for the developers to bake in enough features to merit its usage on a daily basis.
It’s a great concept, and I enjoyed using it in my brief testing and cannot wait to see where developers will take this next. The app is currently available on iPhone and iPad, and you can download it from the App Store.
