Bag accessories replace screens as Meta bets on classic hardware and trades privacy for transactions

Consumer-focused AI devices have a long record of commercial missteps after products such as the iPin, the Rabbit device and the Friend pendant failed to convince users of the value of carrying separate hardware. In an attempt to avoid this technical graveyard, Meta has chosen to steer its new Muse Charm toward a completely different path, presenting it not as a smartphone alternative but as a decorative piece that hangs from bags and keyrings, tapping a broad consumer wave driven by the younger generation’s blending of personal accessories with digital tools.

The design relies on the rise of the bag-accessories market, which has become a prominent commercial phenomenon, especially after the Lappobo doll boom that lifted Chinese retailer Bob Mart’s revenue to $1.8 billion in 2024, a seven-fold increase over 2019. Analytical sector estimates suggest the global market for bag charms and accessories will exceed $1 billion by 2030, driven by widely adopted products such as the “Roud” lip case founded by Hailey Piper, which generated $212 million in annual net sales before “Elf Beauty” acquired it in a $1 billion deal, as well as “Kotch” cherry accessories.

The bet does not rest on hardware performance alone, but on turning the digital agent into an extension of the user’s identity and outward appearance. This trend overlaps with a revival of older, tangible technologies such as digital cameras, foldable phones, iPod players, cassette tapes, and even physical phone keyboards that startups like Klex are reintroducing. The Muse Charm’s design draws on a popular behavior on video platforms, where users repurpose old Apple watches into key charms using the thousands of straps and cases sold on sites such as Amazon, Walmart and Etsy, recalling the virtual Tamagotchi games that were popular in the late 1990s and the early 2000s.

But this shift toward fashion collides with Meta’s complicated record on consumer data protection, as the company has faced multiple settlements with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over the disclosure of private data without owners’ consent, was accused in 2023 of violating a privacy order that followed a 2019 settlement, and has been repeatedly hauled before the U.S. Congress over child-protection issues. Meta is betting on a business model that moves away from direct subscriptions, announcing that it will monetize the Muse agent by taking a small commission on transactions and purchase deals, which places users in the usual trade-off between receiving a free agent and providing their data and consumption behavior to fuel precisely targeted ads.

This shift in consumption interfaces imposes a new reality on retail, e-commerce and marketing sectors in the Gulf, Egypt and the Levant.When a customer switches to a portable personal agent that executes purchases and deducts a direct commission from each transaction, local companies no longer compete solely for shopper attention through screens and mobile apps; they must instead equip their software stacks for direct integration with commercial-agent interfaces. The model also puts regional banks and payment gateways in front of a flow of micro-transactions that demand a review of fee structures, and obliges legislators in the region’s markets to tighten frameworks protecting minors’ privacy and their aggregated purchase data collected via wearables.

Meta’s success in this experiment remains contingent on how willing consumers are to give their devices a permanent place in their daily lives, and whether the appeal of classic gadgets is sufficient to outweigh accumulated concerns about digital-privacy protection.