Miss Your Tamagotchi? Meet The Keychain Digital Pet For 2026

Technology is so advanced today most of us have an entire computer in our pockets. A smartphone is more than a way to keep in touch with friends and family, it allows you to do so much more. But back in the day, a Tamagotchi let you care for a digital pocket creature. Now, there's a new gadget that presumably is inspired by the popular keychain pet.

Meet Starboy, the digital googly-eyed pet that behaves like a real creature trapped inside a star. It's very similar to a Tamagotchi, except instead of feeding it and taking care of it, you interact with it to get it to show different emotions through its eyes. It features AI, which the company, lilguy, says is machine learning designed to pick up on your face and hand gestures through its built-in camera. It also has a microphone, temperature sensor, and accelerometer that allow it to detect sound, changes in temperature, and speed. Starboy features 5,000 variations of eyes, and, when ordered, you'll get them at random.

The pet can also interact with other Starboys through Bluetooth if they are within close proximity. This can cause them to swap eyes with another and spread firmware updates "like a virus," states maker Daniel Kunts, between each other. Ultimately, however, it may just be another gadget for your keychain that's gimmick, but an expensive one at that.

Starboy comes in a range of prices with the lowest being around $140 and the most expensive costing around $600. The onboard camera allows it to detect and learn faces and hand gestures such as giving it a thumbs up to check the battery life or flipping it the bird to make it mad. The microphone can pick up sound and if the Starboy is surrounded by loud music it can become anxious and have eyes to reflect its emotion. It can also detect shifts in temperature and if Starboy is put in the cold for too long, it'll get upset.

The difference between each Starboy is found in the body of the physical high-tech robot companion. You can see ones made out of stainless steel, aluminum, and brass. The display is made out of an AR-coated, 400x400 OLED glass, and each back includes an engraving. Starboy is more or less a fancy piece of jewelry or keychain that acts as a toy you can play with at your leisure.

Starboy is made by lilguy and is available to purchase online at the official lilguy website. One of the more interesting tidbits about it is the entities brought on to help make the pet. It's run through Lark, a custom behavioral system and animation engine and has more than 500 animations built by Disney animators.

Starboy is not the only digital pet brand available — there are others, including one made by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Announced during Meta Connect 2026, Zuckerberg took the stage to reveal the latest Meta AI tech. At the end of the event, he revealed one more thing called the Muse Charm.

Tamagotchi invaded the iPhone 17, but Meta introduced a Tamagotchi-like pet of its own. The Muse Charm is a round keychain device that comes with a fingerprint scanner that allows you to talk to the AI creature Muse. Meta claims Muse will be able to write messages on sites such as Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. It may be able to do more, but little details were announced at the event. Zuckerberg says it should be available around the holidays, but as of this writing, there is no price for the Muse Charm.

If you want a new digital pet to care for around Christmas, a few Starboys are ready to buy now. It and the Muse Charm are just two of the pocket toys that many seem to be excited about if posts on the lilguy Instagram are any indication. If you're looking for a new toy this upcoming season, Starboy may be the next best thing in tech. Afterall, "he's just a little guy."