What are digital dogs and what types of digital pets exist today?

What are digital dogs?

The phrase “digital dog” was first used as a joke by David Muntz to describe a pooch that gets smart by listening to podcasts while being walked [1]. Today, though, it usually means any virtual or robotic dog. That covers everything from simple pixel pets to sophisticated AI‑driven companions.

Digital dogs you can find right now include:

• Virtual pups in apps or games: Giga Pets puppy [2], the Hellopet virtual dog that wanders across your phone screen [6]
• Interactive toy dogs: Hasbro’s Nano‑mals dog toy with 70+ responses [9]
• AI companion dogs: Loona (a lifelike all‑rounder robot with ChatGPT‑4o) [27][34][38], Sony Aibo (dog‑like behaviours) [39], Tombot Jennie (a robotic dog for home‑help and clinical use) [41], ECOVACS LilMilo robot puppy [42]
• Home robot dogs: Xiaomi CyberDog 2 (flexible and open‑source) [30], Sirius (trainable just by talking to it) [31]

So a digital dog can be a game, a toy, or a full‑fledged AI robot that acts much like a real dog.

Types of digital pets that exist today

Digital pets have come a long way from the keychain gadgets of the 90s. Here are the main kinds you can find nowadays.

Classic handheld virtual pets

Tiny devices with a screen where you feed, play with, and clean up after a digital creature.

• Tamagotchi (like the Paradise model) [12]
• Digimon (virtual pet monsters) [11]
• Generic, no‑name virtual pets – plenty of unbranded ones exist [3]
• Sweekar – a 2026 AI pocket pet shaped like an egg with a screen; it learns and eventually can look after itself autonomously [15][16][17]

Virtual pets in games and apps

Digital companions that live on your phone, computer, or VR headset.

• Mobile apps like Nekoatsume, and Hellopet where a virtual dog, cat, or monkey roams your home screen [6][7]
• VR games such as Fantasy Pets for the Oculus [7]
• Video game franchises that fall under the virtual pet umbrella, including Pokémon and Monster Rancher [5]
• Virtual pet video games more broadly [5]

AI companion robots

Physical robots that learn, recognise emotions, and interact more like real animals.

• Loona – the best all‑rounder pet robot, with ChatGPT‑4o and autonomous navigation; it behaves very much like a living dog [27][34][38]
• Sony Aibo – a classic robot dog with dog‑like behaviours [39]
• Moflin – a fluffy, emotional AI pet that develops a unique personality over time and helps relieve stress [18][19][20][21][32]
• Emo – a desktop robot with over 1,000 facial expressions; it cheers you up with music, tells jokes, and helps with small tasks [25][26]
• AIBI – a pocket‑sized, wearable companion powered by ChatGPT; you can chat with it and two AIBIs can even talk to each other [22][23][24]
• Ropet – a plush, warm‑bodied robot that emphasises emotional bonding using AI emotion recognition [29]

Purpose‑built robotic pets

Some robots are designed for very specific jobs.

• Therapy and emotional support: Tombot’s Jennie is a robotic dog meant for home‑help and clinical settings [41]; Moflin serves as an emotional support pet [32]; and the robotic seal Paro has long been used in therapy [7]
• Senior‑friendly companions: Joy for All cats and dogs are simple, need no internet or apps, and are designed for older adults [35]
• Productivity helpers: Lenovo AI Workmate can scan papers, summarise documents, and create slide outlines [33]
• Remote interaction and activity trackers for real pets: Enabot EBO X lets you monitor and interact with your pet from afar, while the Rocki tracks its activity [28]

Electronic toy pets

Modern interactive toys with lights, sounds, and sensors.

• BITZEE Aquarium – a digital fish tank with 30 virtual fish that react to touch [10][13]
• Hasbro Nano‑mals – character‑based electronic pets (like a Disney Stitch model) with over 70 responses [9][14]
• Digimon devices that double as virtual pet monsters [11]

A 90s‑style comeback

Hobbyists are even building a 2026 hardware version of the little plastic digital pets that were everywhere in the 1990s [8].

What exactly is a virtual pet?

At its core, a virtual pet is an imaginary animal (or robot) that you need to care for, whether it lives on a website, in a game, or as a physical gadget in your home [4].