What’s Your One App?

Do you have a favorite app? All the technology that people can access today, sometimes it’s hard to pick an absolute favorite app. Maybe, for you, it’s a game? Or for writers, it’s a memo pad or even Google Docs to give us quick access to our stories. Maybe you’re a banker and you keep an eye on stock. Maybe you’re a nature lover and you use the Seek app to identify every organism you come across. My point: there are a BUNCH of apps out there. So many, that some get overlooked, don’t quite make it, and disappear without a trace.

That happened to my favorite app. An app that actually helped me survive college. No, it wasn’t some “How to cheat on your tests,” or some quick access to my college materials. This was just a cute, little gaming/social app that kept me sane when college was overbearing. The app was called Miitomo. Maybe you remember it? Maybe you didn’t even know it existed? But I really miss it.

The app was made by Nintendo and you basically created your own Mii and your own room, and you could connect with other people who had the app and answer questions about each other, visit, play mini games for more clothing or room decorations, etc. It was meant to be a social app, but that’s not why I liked it so much.

The app eventually included a feature where you could create more Miis with their own rooms and you oversaw them all. You could create characters from video games, famous people, etc. and share them with everyone else. Well, I didn’t enjoy the app because I could create other people’s characters. I enjoyed it because I created my own.

With Miitomo, I had physical access to my characters and I could dress them up how I wanted them to look and it even helped me figure out the styles that my characters like. What’s more is that the app helped me develop my characters. It had a bunch of different questions that I was basically interviewing my characters. They each had their own greetings, goodbyes, and their personality developed the more time I spent with them.

Now, these questions were all simple: Favorite 5 letter word, Favorite Color, Favorite Childhood Dessert, What is something you want your spouse to call you? Etc. But through those questions–these “interviews”–through these little things, I knew how my characters would act during the bigger moments in my novel.

The app even allowed me to create pictures that included up to five Miis. I remember days where I just created pictures, ALL day. It connected me closer to my characters. It helped me visualize scenes. And it was a great creative outlet. So when I got back to my computer, back to my stories, I was able to write even more than before.

Now, when my college career was coming to a close, I got the warning on the app that they were shutting it down. They weren’t getting enough funds to keep it open (as much as I loved the app, I have a rule that I don’t spend money on phone games). I’m glad they gave warning though, because it gave me time to save all the greetings, questions, and pictures that I created for my characters (some of them had over 60 questions I had to record). I have a whole document filled with a list of my characters’ questions and answers and two folders on my computer filled with images all from Miitomo.

As sad as I am that the app is gone, that doesn’t mean I can’t still connect with my characters. I can hand draw some scenes to help me visualize them and I can always look up random questions online to interview my characters. If you’re a writer and you’re stumped in your story. I would recommend giving “interviews” and drawing out scenes. It helped me learn how my characters feel about each other and how they might push through the heartbreaks of their past (plus many of them grew much more fashionable). Miitomo certainly made it easier, but I’m thankful it was there when I needed it.

I’ve been debating for a while about showing off some of the pictures and things I’ve done on Miitomo and I might start including them in later posts. There are two characters I created, that were Miitomo specific for a while and I would love to bring them back. Hopefully, later down the road, you guys will get to meet them, and I hope you love them as much as I do.

So, that’s my app that I loved and miss. If you take a good, hard look on your phone, would you be able to say what your favorite app is? What would you do if that app suddenly shut down like Miitomo did?