Nintendo has a couple of smart phone apps, 4 to be exact. They have been for the most part ignored and there’s a reason for that, but they also offer useful stuff so I’d like to cover them. I always thought they should only have one app with everything on it and now that more apps have been added with single uses more people agree. But I’ll also go over why nintendo has them as separate apps even if it likely means more development resources for each one to stay up to date.
Nintendo Switch App – formerly the Nintendo Switch Online App which its main function was to be used as voice chat. Since no one really wanted a cumbersome way to voice chat they would use discord again. Now that they have the C button they’re opting on reviving the app for its second function that never quite took off. It’s actually a great idea, to have this app to help with different tasks and aid. It reminded me of the GBA GCN connectivity. Sadly it was barely used, only Splatoon 2, Splatoon 3 and Animal Crossing New Horizons used it and barely at that. Nintendo didn’t care to support it likely when they saw people weren’t using them. But they’re trying to revive it with this rebranding of the app and including Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. I think it’ll need a little more than that for people to use it but if Nintendo commit this could become a useful app one day. Although yes, this should be the “everything app” including the below items.
Nintendo Switch Parent Controls – This app not only gave us a really cute video of Bowser and Bowser Jr. It’s genuinelly useful and includes most things a parent would need to control the device of their kids. It always annoyed me that the app was orange but they rebranded it and made it red. This could’ve been on the NSO App but I guess they wanted it different so a parent would have a separate app that their kid doesn’t have access too which could defeat the purpose. I also think this could be built into the system but the same issue would arise. I still think adding it to the other app would be the best alternative and just have that section need a password to access it.
Nintendo Music – I don’t mind the drip feed of albums but I really don’t need a separate app that only has Nintendo music. I really wish Nintendo would just put their music on Spotify officially instead. One of the features of the app is to download so you can play offline your favorite tunes; The problem is that if you don’t have internet, since this is an NSO exclusive app. It needs to check that your subscription is still valid, and if you don’t have internet you can’t listen to your previously downloaded tracks making that feature almost useless. This app would be perfect if it was a Nintendo Switch app you could use on the actual system, it’d make more sense but sadly it’s not. It uses the generic google music UI and well I don’t listen to video game music much outside of the actual game it’s played in.
Nintendo Today – I don’t think people realize how much Nintendo wants and thinks this could succeed. They compared it to the Nintendo Directs, as a way for them to communicate. Instead of putting it in other social media. I’m sure a lot of resources have been put into this as revolutionizing the way news are given but I don’t see it. I’m sure we’ll see some big news announced exclusively here and they have a timeline, but I wonder what they’ll do once they see numbers continue to die as there’s no real reason to use the app every day. And I mean this as someone who loves the app, it includes really cool stuff from short exclusive animated videos and comics of Nintendo franchises. The walkthroughs are perhaps not needed but nice. You have concerts uploaded, and of course the news. It’s neat but it’s not something I feel I have to check and it’ll be easiser to get the exclusive news elsewhere. I also wish they let you save the images, but you can’t do that.
Overall I don’t see Nintendo making an everything app, they’re separated for a reason although if all 4 of those were in one app I’d most likely use it far more often. I think the apps will likely remain for a couple of years but I see Nintendo dropping support slowly as they see that not many are using them. They’d need to rethink their strategy.