Meta’s Muse Charm Joins the Booming Economy of Tech-as-Fashion Accessories

Meta has released the Muse Charm, a palm-sized AI agent that users customize as their own avatar. The device arrives at a moment when a specific aesthetic dominates Gen Z fashion: small, dangling accessories designed to express personality and signal identity within peer groups.

The timing reflects market reality, not nostalgia. While the form factor superficially resembles Tamagotchi pets from the late 1990s and early 2000s, Muse Charm actually taps into something far more current—a market where technology and fashion have merged entirely, with young consumers increasingly demanding that their devices feel personal, tactile, and under their control.

A Billion-Dollar Accessory Market

The bag charm category has become a meaningful retail segment. Pop Mart, a Chinese retailer, saw revenue reach $1.8 billion in 2024, a 7-fold increase from 2019. The growth was driven substantially by Labubu, a deliberately crude-looking fuzzy creature designed as a bag charm. Though demand for Labubu itself has since declined, the broader market for decorative bag charms has remained strong.

Beyond Collectibles: Beauty and Everyday Products

The category has expanded far beyond toys. Rhode, a beauty brand backed by Hailey Bieber, packaged its lip gloss into a phone case that functioned as both product and fashion accessory. The company generated $212 million in annual net sales from roughly 10 products before being acquired by Elf Beauty for a valuation exceeding one billion dollars.

Since then, bag charms have absorbed virtually every consumer category. Hand sanitizers, sunblocks, fragrances, and lip products now come in versions designed to hang from purses. These items serve a dual function: they are useful, but they are primarily expressions of personality and taste through customization and personal choice.

Market Projections and Consumer Behavior

Industry analysts project the global bag charm market will exceed one billion dollars by 2030. These accessories work because they let users signal identity through their belongings, a form of self-expression that humans have pursued for generations through fashion, makeup, and jewelry. For Gen Z specifically, who have grown up with mass-produced social media feeds and standardized digital interfaces, the ability to customize and personalize a physical object has taken on particular importance.

The Apple Watch Keychain Precedent

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Before Muse Charm emerged, a similar pattern had already taken shape with Apple Watch keychains. Young people, particularly women, began repurposing older or unused smartwatches as decorative items, wearing them on lanyards or attaching them to bags and purses rather than wrists. TikTok videos demonstrating different styling approaches accelerated the trend significantly.

From Device to Fashion Accessory

Retailers including Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and Etsy now stock thousands of Apple Watch keychains in virtually every design available. The watch keychains have become fashion accessories first and functional devices second for many younger users. This shift in function takes a computing device and repurposes it primarily for its aesthetic rather than utility, demonstrating that Gen Z consumers actively seek out technology that feels tangible, customizable, and individually owned.

The pattern reveals something deeper than mere fashion preference. Young people consistently report that algorithm-driven social media feeds feel impersonal and create a sense of disconnection. In response, they gravitate toward technology that feels material, owned, and uniquely theirs.

Broader Retro Technology Revival

The Muse Charm sits within a wider pattern of older technology finding new audiences among younger consumers. Digital cameras, flip phones, iPods, cassette tapes, compact discs, landline phones, and wired earbuds have all experienced quiet revivals.

Companies have taken notice. One startup, Clicks, is bringing back a physical keyboard inspired by BlackBerry phones, designing it as a standalone device for users who miss tactile input and perceive modern touchscreens as limiting. In a more extreme example, some young women have begun assembling cyberdecks, portable minimal computers housed in custom clamshell cases and decorated with jewels, flowers, stickers, and pearls to personalize the devices.

Why Physical Tech Appeals to Younger Consumers

This revival stems from specific frustrations with contemporary technology. Consumers report that modern devices are so deeply integrated into daily life through notifications and algorithmic feeds that using them feels obligatory rather than chosen. The ubiquity removes the sense of agency many users crave.

Retro and vintage devices restore a measure of control. They are generally simpler, less connected to algorithmic systems, and more transparent in their function. For Gen Z users, these objects restore a feeling of actual connection to the technology itself, rather than alienation from it.

Customization as a Form of Identity

The Muse Charm allows users to design their own avatar, making the AI agent a reflection of their individual identity. This customization mirrors how bag charms function as personalized expressions within a standard product category.

Gen Z has long used fashion and personal accessories to signal identity and taste. The Muse Charm extends that pattern into software: rather than interacting with a generic AI interface, users engage with a character they have designed themselves. The device becomes a form of self-representation and ownership.

Meta’s Significant Trust Deficit

Despite aligning with clear market trends, Meta faces a substantial challenge: its documented history of privacy violations and consumer deception.

The Federal Trade Commission has required Meta to settle charges of deceiving users by publishing their private information without consent. In 2023, the FTC charged Meta with violating a privacy order that had been part of a 2019 settlement. The company has faced multiple FTC penalties specifically for privacy violations, been hauled before Congress repeatedly over documented harms to minors, and seen various whistleblowers expose internal abuses.

This privacy record creates genuine risk. Consumers choosing a new AI platform have numerous options from companies with cleaner histories. Meta’s core business model relies on targeting advertisements through detailed data collection and personalization, directly conflicting with younger consumers’ stated desire for transparent devices under their control.

Monetization Model and Market Viability

Meta plans to monetize Muse Charm by taking a small transaction fee from user activity, rather than charging a subscription or directly selling user data to advertisers. The model depends on users engaging with the device frequently enough to justify the commission.

If successful, the approach would position Muse Charm as an entry point to deeper Meta AI integration. For the company, the device serves as a way to rebuild relationships with a demographic that has cited privacy concerns and algorithmic fatigue as reasons for reducing their use of Meta platforms.

The device’s ultimate success will depend less on whether it taps the correct aesthetic trend—available evidence suggests it clearly does—and more on whether consumers decide they can trust Meta with a device that requires ongoing interaction and continuous data exchange.