Make your iMessage conversations look a little more 2004, with this Nintendo DS throwback.
A new, recently released app for the iPhone transforms your iMessage conversations into ones that look and feel just like the PictoChat exchanges made on the original Nintendo DS.
This free iMessage app comes from Idress Hassan, who has also previously worked on a neat Pokemon Apple Watch app too.
Their latest application takes us back over 20 years (💀) to 2004, when Nintendo's chat room software service made its debut alongside the much loved dual-screened handheld.
I've got fond memories of using it with buddies, testing just how far the LAN network would work across the high-school playground, chatting with rando's whilst riding the train, and of course, the inevitable sharing of crude dick drawings....
In a post over on Bluesky, Hassan shared that he wanted to bring back the feeling of "pulling out your Nintendo DS on the bus and messaging your friends".
I'd say he's nailed it, as this free, open-source app seems to have all of the PictoChat features you'd expect — including a perfectly recreated retro UI, along with the ability to draw a little doodle, select a tiny pixel emoji to send, and more.
You can download the free PictoChat for iMessage app on the App Store here.
Idrees Hassan
If you've not used an iMessage app before it's worth knowing they are separate to regular apps, so won't show up on your Home Screen. Once added, you'll find it the Messages app under the + plus button. Tap that, select the PictoChat icon, and your keyboard will transform into a PictoChat chat interface.
Very cool. Nice work, Hassan.