As described on Keitai Wiki, “a Machi-chara is a feature that allows avatars to appear on the standby screen and menu on i-mode devices. This service […] told you about unread mails, the current weather and also things such as traffic or earthquake alerts.” While many unique features of Japanese mobile phones were left behind in the transition to Android, not all of them were. We are going to take a deep dive into Machi-Chara for Android – how they work, how to download them, and even how to create them!
How Machi-Chara Work on Android
The Machi-Chara on Android are not built into the phone’s firmware, and you do not need a Japanese phones to use one. Instead, they are included as a feature of DoCoMo’s personal assistant app, which changed names and forms over the years. The app was known as iConcierg, Shabette Concierg, and in its final form, My Daiz. These apps require special permissions in order to present an overlay on your Android screen; the overlay is the Machi-Chara character.
The Machi-Chara download is initiated when the user selects a link to a .mcc or .mcn file that begins with the following preface in place of http or https:
dcmmcsps://Once downloaded, they will join your selection of other
Using any of these apps is challenging nowadays for a few reasons.
- They are built for older versions of Android, and therefore have compatibility issues.
- They technically require logging in with a DoCoMo account in order to function properly. You cannot obtain a DoCoMo account without a Japanese phone number.
That doesn’t make it impossible though.
Setup
You will need the following
- My Daiz APK (GIYF)
- Link to a downloadable Machi-chara (use this one!)
Go through the basic install and setup of My Daiz. Give all permissions, particularly the permission that lets you write over other apps. Once you complete the installation, you’ll be asked to log into a D account. Obviously this is not possible, so you need to just exit the application.
On your device, go to the link for the downloadable Machi-Chara. If your phone is set up correctly, you should receive a special prompt when you select this link:
Accept the download and it should start downloading. My download froze partway through so I had to reboot BlueStacks.
Once the download succeeds, you’ll see a unique notification:
Select the notification above the temperature notification. You will be brought to one more app permission.
Now, the Machi-Chara should appear on screen!
If you press and hold on the character, you’ll move to a menu where you can choose another character:
Where to Obtain Other Machi-Chara
This is a tricky question. First of all, most Machi-Chara nowadays are either not free or not available anymore. I have only found two websites with active Machi-Chara downloads (note that either of these could be taken down any time after I publish this post, and I do not guarantee that they work).
The problem with these links is that the websites will look at your user agent to determine if you have a “compatible phone” (aka an old Android phone where My Daiz would have been pre-installed) and will hide the link from you if your phone does not match.
So, why not put the URL directly into the browser and download it that way? The problem when you do that is that nothing happens. The link must be clicked on a webpage in order to prompt the downloader.
Then why not host the link on another website? I tried that as well. No luck. It seems like these Machi-Chara refuse to be downloaded from any site other than their own.
How do you know these are not broken? Because they work on my F-04J.
How to Make Machi-Chara
It’s possible to avoid the issues described above by simply building a Machi-Chara yourself. Amazingly, the developer page for Android Machi-Chara is still live. In case the link to the SDK goes down, I’ve added it to the Wayback Machine (direct download)
I haven’t tried to use these features so you’ll need to figure these out on your own. If Japanese is not your first language, you can install the program in English with some tweaks.
Extracting Pre-loaded Machi-Chara
This is a subject that requires a bit more research. If you extract the My Daiz APK, you will find the pre-loaded Machi-Chara in the Assets folder. However, it is unclear how to download these .mcc files to a different phone. This is something that I will explore in a future blog post.