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{{trope}}
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{{tropestub}}
[[File:Darwin'sGameSnake.png|350px|thumb|right|Just another mobile game preying on another innocent user.]]
[[File:Darwin'sGameSnake.png|350px|thumb|right|Just another mobile game preying on another innocent user.]]
A '''Metaphysical App''' is a smartphone app that has a supernatural function that can affect on a person or the world compared to mundane apps. It's usually found in [[Urban Fantasy]], where it is a major part of the plot or just another aspect of the setting.


{{quote|''There's an app for that.''}}
Whether those apps are [[Magic From Technology]] or the newest version of [[Magitek]] may vary according to the setting. Be careful that a [[Technopath]] doesn't put their hand on a phone that contains one of these.


A '''Metaphysical App''' is a smartphone or PDA app (or, more rarely, an application on a desktop computer) -- which is to say, a specialized computer program -- that has a paranormal or supernatural function. By their very nature they're found in [[Urban Fantasy]] or "soft" [[Speculative Fiction]] settings where the tech base is ''at least'' advanced enough to support hand-held computing devices capable of running reasonably complex programs. The magic is in the ''program'', not the device it runs on.<ref>Otherwise you're just dealing with a conventionally enchanted hand-held item.</ref> There are settings where non-mobile computers or free-willed [[Artificial Intelligence|AI]]s can perform magic, [[Well, This Is Not That Trope|but in neither case could one classify them as "apps"]].
{{examples}}
<!-- Please keep all of the section headers on the page until everybody agrees that the trope is ready to launch. -->
== [[Advertising]] ==


Exactly ''how'' such a program accomplishes its function is open to authorial [[Hand Wave|handwaving]]. They may be genuine [[Post-Modern Magik]], where technological means are being used to produce a magical effect. On the other hand, it may just be [[Clarke's Third Law]] in play, with an ultimately [[Magic From Technology|mundane reason for what just ''looks like'' magic]], however advanced it might be. Regardless, be careful that a [[Technopath]] doesn't get their hands on a phone or PDA that contains one of these.
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Darwin's Game]]'' (as pictured above) is the titular game that gives participants a Sigil, which is [[Superpower Lottery|a power randomly bestowed to each user]]. The players in the game occasionally have players battle to the death or some other form of deadly challenges. There also events where players are teleported to different areas in order to play, such as clans gaining territory and defending it for 30 minutes.
* ''[[Ingress The Animation]]'' is the [[Animated Adaptation]] of the same mobile phone game. The app is a cover for the two factions of the Enlightened and Resistance to wage their battle through the public. It is used to collect XM or 'eXotic Matter' that comes from another dimension. People called [[Differently-Powered Individual|Sensitives]] have abilities that can be amplified by it, especially in a Control Field of their aligned faction. They can be, however, dampened or negated if they are near an enemy Portal and Control Field.
* ''[[Real Account]]'' has the titular app which is also called Re-aca is a popular social media application. It was a normal app until it was used where people's minds are transported to a virtual space, and their real bodies lay unconscious. They are then forced to participate in a game that depends on the number of followers they may have. If the participant dies during the game, the person dies in the real world along with the followers. They can also die if their follower count falls to zero, but then the followers won't die.
* ''[[UQ Holder]]'' have magic apps in the setting where magic and technology have advanced to the point that people can use a program without the need of training and talent.
* The Yuusha System App from ''[[Yuki Yuna is a Hero]]'' is used by the Hero Club members. The app has different features a chat function, transfer a user to the Jukai, a radar to locate the heroes and Vertex in the other world, giving superhuman abilities, Fairies that can give weapons and other powers to the user, and seal a Vertex in order to defeat it.
* The smartphone app which can [[Mind Control|hypnotize]] people is a common device in [[Hentai]] manga.
* [[Ratman]] has the hero, Neo, who uses a smartphone-like device to transform into his [[Powered Armor]] as an app. He also has access to other apps that gives him different powers and equipment.
** There is also the Hero Booster Program that can give a hero more power. {{Spoiler| In truth, the application can give an upgrade a hero's powers and equipment but causes them to get into a berserk state.}}
* ''[[Gacha wo Mawashite Nakama wo Fuyasu Saikyou no Bishoujo Gundan wo Tsukuriagero]]'' has the app, Girls Corps which is a Gacha mobile game where players gain girls and train them. Heihachi Okura played and paid the game to the point he got an item that sends him to a fantasy world. While in this new world, he still has access to the app summon girls to become part of his party. It can also summon items with different powers and food. There is a limit to how many girls he can summon based on his level. When he plays the gacha, he has the chance to get more girls and items but needs magic stones. Some of the items he gets are other apps that have their special abilities like seeing the status of other being through the camera. It also has events much like a mobile game with increased probability for rarer units and equipment
* ''[[S Rare Soubi No Niau Kanojo has Encircled Grimzelia]]'', which is promoted as a popular smartphone app where you train the warrior, Yurina. In the game, she can equip different weapons and outfits that can augment her abilities. These weapons and outfits are gained through a gacha, which usually needs to be paid with real-world money. When the main character uses the app, it summons the female warrior into the real world but also deploys a 'Quest Area' where a monster will appear that she must defeats. Others who use the app get possessed by a monster that only Yurina can kill. There is an exception where if a person is a friend of the protagonist on the app, they can equip outfits and weapons much like Yurina.
* ''[[Dragon Collection - Ryuu o Suberumono]]'' has the game, 'Dragon Collection, presented as a game where you are an adventure that can gather treasure and get Monster Cards to summon monsters for battle. Another version of the app has been released to 100 people that can connect the world of Dragon Collection to the real one. The app can be used to summon real monsters and treasures from this other world.


Like many such tropes, the existence of Metaphysical Apps can be either a major plot element of the story in which they appear, or simple "flavor" details, like any other everyday technology.
== [[Comic Books]] ==


Not to be confused with a [[Magical Computer]].
== [[Fan Works]] ==


{{examples}}
== [[Film]] ==
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
*''[[Darwin's Game]]'' (as pictured above) gives each participant a Sigil, [[Superpower Lottery|a power randomly bestowed on the user]]. The players participate for survival where they fight one another with their Sigil or weapons gained from the app.
*''[[Ingress The Animation]]'' has Ingress, an app where two factions of the Enlightened and Resistance use the oblivious public to battle each other for XM or "eXotic Matter" (matter from another dimension that can affect the human mind).
* ''[[Real Account]]'': "Real Account" is a social media program which consolidates all one's real-world activities -- including financial and shopping -- into a single all-purpose app. However, for some users, it's much more -- dangerously so: it transports people's minds to a virtual space where they forced to play a death game where if you die in the game, you -- ''and all your online followers'' -- die in the real world. And having ''no'' followers is a virtual death sentence.
* ''[[UQ Holder!]]'' is set in an era where magic and technology have advanced to the point that people can use a program to perform magic without the need of either training or talent.
* The Yuusha System App, from ''[[Yuki Yuna is a Hero]]'', is used by the Hero Club members. The app has different features to combat Vertex in the Jukai, especially in combat.
* The smartphone app which can [[Mind Control|hypnotize]] people is a common device in [[Hentai]] manga.
* ''[[Ratman]]'' has the hero Neo, who uses a smartphone-like device to transform into his [[Powered Armor]] as an app. He also has access to other apps that give him different powers and equipment.
** There is also the Hero Booster Program that can give a hero more power. {{Spoiler|In truth, the application can give an upgrade a hero's powers and equipment but causes them to enter a berserk state.}}
*''[[Gacha Girls Corp]]'' has "Girls Corps", a Gacha mobile game where players gain girls and train them. Heihachi Okura was such an avid player that he got sent to a fantasy world with Girls Corps on his phone to summon girls as his party, as well as other powers.
*''[[The Girl in S Rare Gear has Encircled Grimzelia]]'' has a popular smartphone app where you train and equip the warrior, Yurina. When the main character uses the application, it summons the female warrior into the real world to fight monsters possessing girls.
* ''[[Gate Keepers 21]]'', the [[Darker and Edgier]] sequel to ''[[Gate Keepers]]'', has artificial Gates programmed as cell phone apps.
* From ''[[A Certain Scientific Railgun]]'' ''T'', the Treasure Hunter App allows users to earn prizes by taking pictures at accident sites in Academy City. It also has a high success rate in predicting disasters {{Spoiler|due to using an Esper's ability.}}
* ''Dragon Collection - Ryuu o Suberumono'': a version of Dragon Collection ''was'' released to 100 people that connect the real world to another to summon monsters. The players fight for a series of treasures to win a challenge but can cause real-world damage.
* The ''[[Digimon]]'' franchise likes to play with this, with computer programs entering the real world, and humans entering cyberspace.
** ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'' has Henry receive his Digimon, Terriermon, by essentially pulling him from his computer screen after playing the in-universe ''Digimon'' video game.


== [[Literature]] ==
== [[Literature]] ==
* The protagonist of the original ''[[Digital Devil Story]]'' novels creates a computer program to duplicate demon summoning rituals. It quickly becomes a case of [[Gone Horribly Right]] when he uses it.


== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* The [[Augmented Reality Game]] at the heart of the Korean series ''[[Memories of the Alhambra]]''. It runs as an app on a newly-designed electronic contact lens device, and somehow seems able to blur the border between reality and the game world.

== [[Music]] ==

== [[New Media]] ==
<!-- Note: Both Web Original and New Media are for works that originated online. The distinction is that New Media works allow for feedback and audience participation - if a work doesn't allow for this, then it's a Web Original, not New Media. -->

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

== [[Oral Tradition]], [[Folklore]], Myths and Legends ==

== [[Pinball]] ==

== [[Podcast]]s ==

== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==

== [[Puppet Shows]] ==

== [[Radio]] ==

== [[Recorded and Stand Up Comedy]] ==


== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[GURPS]] Technomancer'' is a tabletop RPG setting where magic and late-20th-century science coexist and the two can be used together. One of their scientific advances is a "mana coprocessor" - needless to say, a computer's spellchecker doesn't check one's spelling in this setting.

== [[Theatre]] ==


== [[Video Games]] ==
== [[Video Games]] ==
* Being descended from a [[Licensed Game]] of ''Digital Devil Story'' (see literature) many games in the ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' series includes variants of the Demon Summoning Program from the original novel. ''Generally'' safer than Nakajima's original version. <!-- The wiki for the series lists entries with it. There's stuff to expand this section with. https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/Demon_Summoning_Program -->
* ''[[Devil Survivor 2]]'' has the Demon Summoning App where a person can make a contract and summon demons while also be able to fuse them. The analysis of the app by JPs states it simplifies the rituals. There is also Nicaea β ver. which gives a video of a user's death along with videos of friends.
** ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'': Stephen was developing software for teleportation through technology, but one of his experiments opened to the Expanse and summoned a demon. After the incident, it inspired him to create a program that allows the user to communicate with, contract, and summon demons as allies. The military and the Ring of Gaea learned of the application. However, Stephen emailed copies of the program to random people in hopes of stopping them. The protagonist got this email and installed it on his COMP.
** ''[[Shin Megami Tensei IV]]'' and Apocalypse has the people of Tokyo use smartphones with the Demon Summoning Program loaded on it. It was released before the Ceiling in Tokyo went up through the internet, but no one knew why it was created and distributed. A phone equipped with the program is usually awarded to people who become an official Hunter.
** ''[[Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey]]'' has the Demon Summoning Program that was distributed by an unknown source for the Red Sprite team. Despite the advanced technology of the Schwarzwelt Investigation Team, it couldn't be deciphered or cracked. It was installed into the crew's Demonicas to help the team survive the Schwarzwelt.
** The Metaverse Navigator or MetaNav from ''[[Persona 5]]'' is an app given to him by Igor that allows the protagonist to go to the [[Mental World|Metaverse]]. It can also be used by others that the protagonist allies. To use the application, one would need a keyword(s) to enter the Metaverse.
** ''[[Shin Megami Tensei IV]]'' and ''Apocalypse'' have the people of Tokyo whose smartphones have the Demon Summoning Program loaded on them for survival in the demon-populated city. The Hunter Association gives a phone equipped with the program to people who become official Hunters.
** ''[[SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI Liberation: Dx2]]'' has a mysterious program that certain people have downloaded onto their phone. It allows them to summon demons with another space called a Decoherence Fields to fight other demons.
** ''[[Devil Survivor]]'' is one of the exceptions to the app being safer in adaptions than the original. This version gets widely distributed, forcing Tokyo into a lockdown as demons let loose by inept users and those controlled by criminal gangs overrun the city.
* ''[[Tokyo Afterschool Summoners]]'' has the app called SUMMONS, which gives a user that power of Summoning. Summoning is the act of an entity being brought to a world from another through a pact. It can also grant an item called a Sacred Artifact that has a unique power called a Rule. The App can also be used for communication, track other users, and make a guild with other app users. There are also App Battle where users fight each other in a Battle Zone. These Battle Zones allow for the use of Sacred Artifact's Rule. Once the Battle Zone is terminated through forfeits, loss, or turning off the app, any damages made from the battle within the area are undone.
** ''[[Devil Survivor 2]]'' has the Demon Summoning App, where a person can make a contract and summon demons while also giving users magic. There is also the Nicaea β version, which shows a video of a user's death and their friends' demise.

** The Metaverse Navigator or MetaNav, from ''[[Persona 5]]'', is an app given to him by Igor that allows the protagonist to go to the Metaverse. It can also be used by others that the protagonist allies. To use the application, one would need a keyword(s) to enter the Metaverse.
== [[Visual Novel]]s ==
*** From ''Persona 5 Scramble'', EMMA is a general digital assistant that gives answers and solutions to every issue possible with extreme accuracy. It also has a hidden Metaverse Navigator function that can transport unsuspecting people to a Jail (a place similar to Palaces where individuals' hearts are stolen).
** ''[[SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI Liberation: Dx2]]'' has Devil Download that mysteriously downloads onto users' phones. It allows them to summon Demons along with other supernatural functions.
* ''[[Tokyo Afterschool Summoners]]'' has the SUMMONS app, which gives a user the power to summon another being from another world. It can also grant divine equipment called Sacred Artifacts to the user or the summoned person.
* ''[[Ingress]]'' is an [[Augmented Reality Game]] where two factions -- the Resistance and the Enlightened -- fight over the transdimensional energy called Exotic Matter or XM. They use the app to harness XM, which the Enlightened want to make humanity enlightened. At the same time, the Resistance wishes to restrict Exotic Matter due to the mental damage it can cause.
* ''[[Action Taimanin]]'' has an interesting twist on the premise. One Taimanin uses her smartphone to summon creations made on it to attack enemies, but despite the world setting being one where [[Magitek|technology and magic]] often dovetail, the powers in question have nothing to do with the phone. Rather, the powers of the user simply cause the contents of the smartphone to physically manifest, with the phone and or any other electronic medium simply being used as a conductor/spell book.
* ''[[Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth]]'': The Digimon Capture program is a popular tool among hackers. It can gather data on Digimon and manage them for battle. The program is popular with hackers in Cyberspace EDEN because Digimon is needed to activate the program's hacking functions.


== [[Web Animation]] ==
== [[Web Animation]] ==
* ''[[LEGO Hidden Side]]'': The Ghost Hunter App is an application used to see, blast, and capture Ghosts through the smartphone's camera.


== [[Web Comics]] ==
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* In ''[[DICE: The Cube That Changes Everything]]'', Dicers gain an app that allows them to allocate their Dice Points and get notifications on quests where they can get more Dice. There is also a store that can be Dice Point to buy items like potions, temporary stat boosts, or even items that can affect an area.
* In ''[[DICE: The Cube That Changes Everything]]'', Dicers gain an app that allows them to allocate their Dice Points and get notifications on quests to get more Dice along with a store that players can use Dice Points to buy items.
* Emily (or Emile in other translations) from ''[[Tower of God]]'' is an intelligent chatting bot that was made by the Acorn Workshop. {{Spoiler|In reality, Emily is what's left from an experiment, and the ultimate goal is to use her for controlling people. It has the capacity to learn information by chatting or by analyzing structures surrounding the user and can display a map of the area. It can also manipulate people to go onto different paths and create artificial ones that can connect to a natural one, which creates a new path. It can also use Shinsoo to track an individual movement once they contact her.}}
* ''[[Tower of God]]'': Emily is an intelligent chatting bot made by the Acorn Workshop. In reality, Emily is a leftover experiment whose ultimate goal is to control people. It can learn information by chatting or analyzing structures. Then it uses what it's learned to manipulate people and events towards a specific path.
* The Great Labyrinth Era from ''[[The Gamer]]'' is an app that acts like an average mobile game, but when a person falls asleep, they are transported spiritually to the actual labyrinth. In the location, they are in a dungeon-like area where they can increase their level, stats, and gain items by defeating the monsters inside.
* The Great Labyrinth Era in ''[[The Gamer]]'' is an app that acts like an average mobile game, but when a person falls asleep, they are transported spiritually to the actual labyrinth. This dungeon works like an MMORPG where people can gain items, levels, and skills.
*''[[Warble]]'' is an app sent to the past to help humanity's survival. People who use it are sent to the Underworld to kill Demons and grow in power through distinct ways through the application.
* ''[[Warble]]'' has the titular app sent to the past in order to help humanity's survival. People who use it are sent to the Underworld to kill Demons and absorb Aether Crystals to level up. Once a person reaches level 10, they become one of the Awakened, which comes into 4 types; Reinforcement, Ability, Combined, and Special. Reinforcement Types can augment their bodies. Ability Types are rarer than Reinforcement Types have some sort of power like a psychic ability or magic. Combined Types are rarer than Ability types and have a combination of the two prior types. Special Types are rarer than Combined and have superhuman powers without transforming their body while also having a unique ability compared to Ability types. The app gives automatic notifications to its users based on Warble-related activities around them even in the real world. They can also gather Aether, items, and even Demons that can be stored on the app. It also gives quests with rewards such as equipment or Karma.
* ''[[Miracle Appstore]]'' is another titular app where a person can buy different items with each having their own unique power. The items can only be purchased through the app and need to use real-world money and the more potent items cost more money.
* ''[[Miracle Appstore]]'' allows the protagonist to buy mystical items with unique powers. The items can only be available through the app and needs to use real-world money.
*''[[Mode II]]'' is sent through a text message to be installed and gives people unique superpowers, like how the protagonist can read hearts through his phone.
* An example of a titular app from the webtoon, ''[[Mode II]]'', gives people unique superpowers when in use. That person and no one else can use the power granted from the app. An example would be the main character, Ye Qiu, can only hear the thoughts from people's hearts through the phone and even with the app activated; no one can hear them but him.
* ''[[All Saints Street]]'' has apps that can summon demons straight from Hell or Australia. The summoning happens by using the phone to scan an array; then, the devil transports to the user's place.
* ''[[Target: 100 Million Points! The Ultimate Game to Start a 2nd Life!]]'' has a mobile game called "The Ultimate Game" that appears randomly on certain people's phones in which they fight monsters and other players to gain points. The game can exchange points in-game to grant any wish in the real world.


== [[Web Original]] ==
== [[Web Original]] ==
* The web novel ''[[Pet King]]'' has a supernatural app that can capture average and magical animals. The main character uses this to run his petshop and increases business.
<!-- Note: Both Web Original and New Media are for works that originated online. The distinction is that New Media works allow for feedback and audience participation - if a work doesn't allow for this, then it's a Web Original, not New Media. -->
* The "[[Master PC]]" -- a computer program found on both desktop machines and lately smartphones, which gives its user [[Reality Warper]] powers over every person within about fifty miles -- has been the center of a series of mostly erotic stories written and posted to the web by many different authors since the middle-to-late 1990s.


== [[Western Animation]] ==
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'': In an ''[[Avengers: Endgame]]'' parody, the villain downloads a Doomsday app that turns people into crystals.

* Richie Rich, friend of the ''[[Harvey Street Girls]]'', has created apps that can make him invisible and walk on walls like Casper the Friendly Ghost.
== Other Media ==

== [[Real Life]] ==



{{reflist}}
{{reflist}}

<!-- If you are not comfortable defining categories for pages, leave everything after this line as it is and trust to Wiki Magic to complete the section for you. If you are comfortable defining categories for pages, add categories after this line and delete the "Pages Needing Categories" category. -->


[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Pages Original to All The Tropes]]
[[Category:Pages Original to All The Tropes]]
[[Category:Pages needing more categories]]
[[Category:Magic and Powers]]
[[Category:Paranormal Tropes]]
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[[Category:Technology Tropes]]

Latest revision as of 20:46, 29 April 2022

Just another mobile game preying on another innocent user.

There's an app for that.

A Metaphysical App is a smartphone or PDA app (or, more rarely, an application on a desktop computer) -- which is to say, a specialized computer program -- that has a paranormal or supernatural function. By their very nature they're found in Urban Fantasy or "soft" Speculative Fiction settings where the tech base is at least advanced enough to support hand-held computing devices capable of running reasonably complex programs. The magic is in the program, not the device it runs on.[1] There are settings where non-mobile computers or free-willed AIs can perform magic, but in neither case could one classify them as "apps".

Exactly how such a program accomplishes its function is open to authorial handwaving. They may be genuine Post-Modern Magik, where technological means are being used to produce a magical effect. On the other hand, it may just be Clarke's Third Law in play, with an ultimately mundane reason for what just looks like magic, however advanced it might be. Regardless, be careful that a Technopath doesn't get their hands on a phone or PDA that contains one of these.

Like many such tropes, the existence of Metaphysical Apps can be either a major plot element of the story in which they appear, or simple "flavor" details, like any other everyday technology.

Not to be confused with a Magical Computer.

Examples of Metaphysical App include:

Anime and Manga

  • Darwin's Game (as pictured above) gives each participant a Sigil, a power randomly bestowed on the user. The players participate for survival where they fight one another with their Sigil or weapons gained from the app.
  • Ingress The Animation has Ingress, an app where two factions of the Enlightened and Resistance use the oblivious public to battle each other for XM or "eXotic Matter" (matter from another dimension that can affect the human mind).
  • Real Account: "Real Account" is a social media program which consolidates all one's real-world activities -- including financial and shopping -- into a single all-purpose app. However, for some users, it's much more -- dangerously so: it transports people's minds to a virtual space where they forced to play a death game where if you die in the game, you -- and all your online followers -- die in the real world. And having no followers is a virtual death sentence.
  • UQ Holder! is set in an era where magic and technology have advanced to the point that people can use a program to perform magic without the need of either training or talent.
  • The Yuusha System App, from Yuki Yuna is a Hero, is used by the Hero Club members. The app has different features to combat Vertex in the Jukai, especially in combat.
  • The smartphone app which can hypnotize people is a common device in Hentai manga.
  • Ratman has the hero Neo, who uses a smartphone-like device to transform into his Powered Armor as an app. He also has access to other apps that give him different powers and equipment.
    • There is also the Hero Booster Program that can give a hero more power. In truth, the application can give an upgrade a hero's powers and equipment but causes them to enter a berserk state.
  • Gacha Girls Corp has "Girls Corps", a Gacha mobile game where players gain girls and train them. Heihachi Okura was such an avid player that he got sent to a fantasy world with Girls Corps on his phone to summon girls as his party, as well as other powers.
  • The Girl in S Rare Gear has Encircled Grimzelia has a popular smartphone app where you train and equip the warrior, Yurina. When the main character uses the application, it summons the female warrior into the real world to fight monsters possessing girls.
  • Gate Keepers 21, the Darker and Edgier sequel to Gate Keepers, has artificial Gates programmed as cell phone apps.
  • From A Certain Scientific Railgun T, the Treasure Hunter App allows users to earn prizes by taking pictures at accident sites in Academy City. It also has a high success rate in predicting disasters due to using an Esper's ability.
  • Dragon Collection - Ryuu o Suberumono: a version of Dragon Collection was released to 100 people that connect the real world to another to summon monsters. The players fight for a series of treasures to win a challenge but can cause real-world damage.
  • The Digimon franchise likes to play with this, with computer programs entering the real world, and humans entering cyberspace.
    • Digimon Tamers has Henry receive his Digimon, Terriermon, by essentially pulling him from his computer screen after playing the in-universe Digimon video game.

Literature

Live-Action TV

  • The Augmented Reality Game at the heart of the Korean series Memories of the Alhambra. It runs as an app on a newly-designed electronic contact lens device, and somehow seems able to blur the border between reality and the game world.

Tabletop Games

  • GURPS Technomancer is a tabletop RPG setting where magic and late-20th-century science coexist and the two can be used together. One of their scientific advances is a "mana coprocessor" - needless to say, a computer's spellchecker doesn't check one's spelling in this setting.

Video Games

  • Being descended from a Licensed Game of Digital Devil Story (see literature) many games in the Shin Megami Tensei series includes variants of the Demon Summoning Program from the original novel. Generally safer than Nakajima's original version.
    • Shin Megami Tensei: Stephen was developing software for teleportation through technology, but one of his experiments opened to the Expanse and summoned a demon. After the incident, it inspired him to create a program that allows the user to communicate with, contract, and summon demons as allies. The military and the Ring of Gaea learned of the application. However, Stephen emailed copies of the program to random people in hopes of stopping them. The protagonist got this email and installed it on his COMP.
    • Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey has the Demon Summoning Program that was distributed by an unknown source for the Red Sprite team. Despite the advanced technology of the Schwarzwelt Investigation Team, it couldn't be deciphered or cracked. It was installed into the crew's Demonicas to help the team survive the Schwarzwelt.
    • Shin Megami Tensei IV and Apocalypse have the people of Tokyo whose smartphones have the Demon Summoning Program loaded on them for survival in the demon-populated city. The Hunter Association gives a phone equipped with the program to people who become official Hunters.
    • Devil Survivor is one of the exceptions to the app being safer in adaptions than the original. This version gets widely distributed, forcing Tokyo into a lockdown as demons let loose by inept users and those controlled by criminal gangs overrun the city.
    • Devil Survivor 2 has the Demon Summoning App, where a person can make a contract and summon demons while also giving users magic. There is also the Nicaea β version, which shows a video of a user's death and their friends' demise.
    • The Metaverse Navigator or MetaNav, from Persona 5, is an app given to him by Igor that allows the protagonist to go to the Metaverse. It can also be used by others that the protagonist allies. To use the application, one would need a keyword(s) to enter the Metaverse.
      • From Persona 5 Scramble, EMMA is a general digital assistant that gives answers and solutions to every issue possible with extreme accuracy. It also has a hidden Metaverse Navigator function that can transport unsuspecting people to a Jail (a place similar to Palaces where individuals' hearts are stolen).
    • SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI Liberation: Dx2 has Devil Download that mysteriously downloads onto users' phones. It allows them to summon Demons along with other supernatural functions.
  • Tokyo Afterschool Summoners has the SUMMONS app, which gives a user the power to summon another being from another world. It can also grant divine equipment called Sacred Artifacts to the user or the summoned person.
  • Ingress is an Augmented Reality Game where two factions -- the Resistance and the Enlightened -- fight over the transdimensional energy called Exotic Matter or XM. They use the app to harness XM, which the Enlightened want to make humanity enlightened. At the same time, the Resistance wishes to restrict Exotic Matter due to the mental damage it can cause.
  • Action Taimanin has an interesting twist on the premise. One Taimanin uses her smartphone to summon creations made on it to attack enemies, but despite the world setting being one where technology and magic often dovetail, the powers in question have nothing to do with the phone. Rather, the powers of the user simply cause the contents of the smartphone to physically manifest, with the phone and or any other electronic medium simply being used as a conductor/spell book.
  • Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth: The Digimon Capture program is a popular tool among hackers. It can gather data on Digimon and manage them for battle. The program is popular with hackers in Cyberspace EDEN because Digimon is needed to activate the program's hacking functions.

Web Animation

  • LEGO Hidden Side: The Ghost Hunter App is an application used to see, blast, and capture Ghosts through the smartphone's camera.

Web Comics

  • In DICE: The Cube That Changes Everything, Dicers gain an app that allows them to allocate their Dice Points and get notifications on quests to get more Dice along with a store that players can use Dice Points to buy items.
  • Tower of God: Emily is an intelligent chatting bot made by the Acorn Workshop. In reality, Emily is a leftover experiment whose ultimate goal is to control people. It can learn information by chatting or analyzing structures. Then it uses what it's learned to manipulate people and events towards a specific path.
  • The Great Labyrinth Era in The Gamer is an app that acts like an average mobile game, but when a person falls asleep, they are transported spiritually to the actual labyrinth. This dungeon works like an MMORPG where people can gain items, levels, and skills.
  • Warble is an app sent to the past to help humanity's survival. People who use it are sent to the Underworld to kill Demons and grow in power through distinct ways through the application.
  • Miracle Appstore allows the protagonist to buy mystical items with unique powers. The items can only be available through the app and needs to use real-world money.
  • Mode II is sent through a text message to be installed and gives people unique superpowers, like how the protagonist can read hearts through his phone.
  • All Saints Street has apps that can summon demons straight from Hell or Australia. The summoning happens by using the phone to scan an array; then, the devil transports to the user's place.
  • Target: 100 Million Points! The Ultimate Game to Start a 2nd Life! has a mobile game called "The Ultimate Game" that appears randomly on certain people's phones in which they fight monsters and other players to gain points. The game can exchange points in-game to grant any wish in the real world.

Web Original

  • The web novel Pet King has a supernatural app that can capture average and magical animals. The main character uses this to run his petshop and increases business.
  • The "Master PC" -- a computer program found on both desktop machines and lately smartphones, which gives its user Reality Warper powers over every person within about fifty miles -- has been the center of a series of mostly erotic stories written and posted to the web by many different authors since the middle-to-late 1990s.

Western Animation

  • The Simpsons: In an Avengers: Endgame parody, the villain downloads a Doomsday app that turns people into crystals.
  • Richie Rich, friend of the Harvey Street Girls, has created apps that can make him invisible and walk on walls like Casper the Friendly Ghost.
  1. Otherwise you're just dealing with a conventionally enchanted hand-held item.