Shimeji: Play with Screen Pets

Review by eFreeware

Shimeji is an Android personalization app from Digital Cosmos, an independent developer based in Spain, and its purpose is simple to state: it puts small animated pets on top of whatever else is on your screen. Cats, kittens and anime-style characters wander, climb and nap over your apps rather than sitting inside a wallpaper or a widget. The app has been on Android since December 2016 and now sits at more than 10 million installs with a 4.4 average from over 419,000 ratings.

What makes it worth a look is the combination of ready-made characters and ways to make your own. You can run several pets at once, interact with them directly, import character packs made for the desktop version of Shimeji, or draw a pet frame by frame. The developer also added 3D cats that respond to touch, food and play, which broadens the appeal beyond people who only want a decorative overlay.

It is a free download supported by ads and in-app purchases, so the sensible approach is to treat it as a customization toy rather than a utility. If the idea of a small creature pacing across your home screen sounds charming rather than distracting, this is the app that has been doing it the longest on Android.

Who gets the most from a screen full of pets

The clearest audience is anyone who treats their phone's look as a hobby. If you already spend time on wallpapers, icon packs and launchers, a pet that walks across your apps is another layer of the same project, and the ability to run up to 10 at once means you can build a scene rather than just add one ornament.

The second group is people who like making things. Drawing every frame of a character with brush, eraser, fill and color tools is a slow, deliberate activity, and importing compatible PC Shimeji packs rewards anyone who already has a collection from the desktop version. The Magic AI option, where you describe a pet and pick a result, is a faster route for those who would rather choose than draw.

The 3D cats suit a different mood. Petting, throwing, feeding and watching them play and fight is closer to a small companion than to decoration, and the developer notes that each cat has its own personality, friends and foes. That side of the app works while you are chatting, studying, drawing or browsing, since the pets stay on top of whatever you have open.

Where it asks something of you is in attention. A pet that moves over your apps is meant to be noticed, and leveling it up to unlock new moves and poses takes time spent interacting. This is a poor fit for anyone who wants their screen to stay still and quiet, and a good one for anyone who finds a bit of motion on the home screen pleasant.

Cats, kittens and anime characters that live on top of your apps

The core of the app is the overlay itself. Pets walk, climb, sit, nap and explore above your other apps, so they remain visible while you use the phone normally. You can run as many as 10 at the same time, which turns the screen into something closer to a small habitat than a single mascot.

Interaction is direct. Tapping, dragging and tossing a pet produces a reaction, and the developer says pets earn experience as they wander. Leveling up unlocks new moves, poses and surprises, and playing with a pet earns bonus experience, so there is a light progression loop attached to what would otherwise be pure decoration.

Controls for size, speed and behavior let you tune how much presence the pets have. That matters more than it sounds: a pet that is too large or too fast becomes an obstacle, while a smaller, slower one reads as background life. The developer describes the animation engine as smooth and battery-friendly, a claim worth taking as a promise rather than a measurement.

The recent update adds 3D cats with hundreds of animations and interactions, including feeding and toys, and they climb walls and ceilings. These sit alongside the flat characters rather than replacing them, so the app now covers both a drawn, sprite-like style and a rounded 3D one.

Building a collection: importing packs and drawing your own

There are three routes to a pet. The first is the built-in catalog of original characters made for the app. The second is importing compatible PC Shimeji packs, which lets existing desktop collections run on Android. The third is making something yourself, either by drawing it or by generating it.

The drawing tools cover the basics you would expect: brush, eraser, fill and color, applied frame by frame. That is a real commitment, since a character that walks, climbs, dances and sleeps needs a set of frames for each action, but it also means the result is genuinely yours rather than a recolored preset.

For a quicker result, Magic AI takes a written description, such as a pastel cat or a cookie dragon, and offers options to choose from. It is aimed at people who want a personal pet without spending an evening on animation frames.

The recent update also mentions painting your own cat, adding a hat and unlocking tricks through leveling, and it asks users to report any problems with AI generations from inside the app. Taken together, the collecting and creating side is where most of the long-term time goes once the novelty of the first pet wears off.

Ghost Mode and the controls that keep pets out of the way

A pet that sits above everything can get in the way, and Ghost Mode is the answer to that. It keeps pets visible while making them ignore touches, so they carry on moving without intercepting taps meant for the app underneath. This is meant to be useful while gaming or chatting, which is exactly when an accidental tap costs you.

The size, speed and behavior settings work alongside it. Adjusting these lets you decide whether the pets are a foreground toy or a quiet presence in the corner of the screen, and the combination of Ghost Mode with a smaller, slower pet is the least intrusive arrangement the app allows.

What the app does offer is a way to reduce how much is happening on screen at once, which is the main lever you have over how demanding it feels.

What Shimeji costs and what the ads and purchases mean

Shimeji is free to download. It carries ads and it offers in-app purchases, so the free experience is supported by advertising and there is the option to spend money inside the app. I would treat what the purchases cover as something to check in the app itself rather than assume.

Running pets on your screen, interacting with them, importing packs, drawing characters and using the creation tools are all part of the app, and it is presented as a free download throughout.

The practical point is that ads are part of the deal. For a free personalization app with this much content, that is a normal arrangement, and it is worth deciding before you install whether you are comfortable with advertising on a screen you look at constantly.

How it compares with other ways to dress up a phone

Most personalization apps change how the phone looks when you are not using it: a wallpaper, an icon set, a themed launcher. Shimeji is different in that its characters live above your apps while you work, which makes it far more present than a static background and considerably more noticeable than a themed icon pack.

Against a game, the comparison is also uneven. There is a leveling system and experience to earn, but the pets are not a title you sit down and play through. They are something running alongside whatever else you are doing, closer to a live wallpaper with behavior than to a game with goals.

Against commissioning or downloading a single animated mascot, the appeal here is breadth. A built-in catalog, support for compatible PC packs, a frame-by-frame editor and AI generation together offer far more variety than a one-off character, and the trade-off is that the app does more and therefore has more moving parts to learn.

A charming overlay for people who like their screens busy

Shimeji has been doing this on Android since 2016, and the years show in the range of options rather than in any single feature. Pets that walk and climb over your apps, up to 10 of them at once, tap and drag interaction, experience and leveling, a catalog of original characters, PC pack importing, a frame-by-frame editor, image-to-character conversion and AI generation cover a lot of ground for a free app.

Ghost Mode addresses the obvious objection to an overlay, since pets can stay visible while ignoring your touches.

It is free with ads and in-app purchases, which is the main thing to weigh before installing. If you like the idea of a small creature keeping you company while you chat, study or draw, and you enjoy tinkering with characters until they look right, this is an easy app to spend time in. If you want your screen to stay perfectly still while you work, the whole premise will wear thin quickly.

What's new in version 14.0

🐱 NEW: 3D Pets! Adorable cats that live on your screen. Feed them, play with toys and watch them climb walls and ceilings 🎨 Paint your own cat, add a hat, and level it up to unlock new tricks 💞 Every cat has its own personality, friends and foes 🚩 Report any issues with AI generations inside the app 🐞 Bug fixes and smoother performance