If you grew up with a Nintendo DS in your hands, you surely remember Pictochat, this little integrated messaging service that allowed you to chat locally and draw absurdities with a stylus. Twenty years later, this atmosphere is back… on iPhone. Thanks to an Imessage called Picochat for iMessage, signed by Idrees Hassan, we can again write illegible messages and make college designs, as in 2005.
The 2000s come back by sliding the finger
The basic idea is simple: bringing this special feeling of discussions with scribbles on the train, in the recess or at the bottom of a school bus. And honestly, it works. The interface takes up everything that made Pictochat’s charm (or chaos): a tight keyboard, small boxes to write, pixelated emojis and the possibility of sending your drawings in the blink ofs.
And yes, all this in Imessage. No need your friends install the app: each message is sent in the form of an image. This allows you, by the way, to rot their conversation thread with doubtful sketches.
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Well, let’s be clear: it is not an app to discuss seriously. The text field is tiny, the keyboard takes half the screen, and in landscape mode, instead of enlarging the area, the app displays a menu to find its favorite drawings. Practical ? No. Funny ? Yes ! Even more if you are on iPad with an Apple Pencil: there, we almost find the sensations of the period.
It is not made to exchange an urgent plan or a soft word. But to send a pixelated unicorn or a poorly drawn man accompanied by a “lol”, it’s perfect.
Picochat for iMessage is open source, free and especially not affiliated with Nintendo – which means that Big n could get involved at any time and blow up the app. But in the meantime, it is a little guilty pleasure, a return to a time when drawing a zizi on a local network was enough to make you scream with laughter (it is always the case today). So, if you want to fall back in your college years for five minutes, you know what to do.
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