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Metaphysical App: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}{{cleanup|
{{trope workshop}}
{{tropestub}}
[[File:Darwin'sGameSnake.png|350px|thumb|right|Just another mobile game preying on another innocent user.]]
A '''Metaphysical App''' is a smartphone app -- 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"]].
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 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 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.
{{examples}}
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== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
*''[[Darwin's Game]]'' (as pictured above) gives
*''[[Ingress The Animation]]'' has Ingress, an app where two factions of the Enlightened and Resistance uses the oblivious public to battle each other for XM or 'eXotic Matter'(a matter from another dimension that can affect the human mind).
*''[[Real Account]]'' (or Re-aca for short) was a popular social media application until it transports people's minds to a virtual space. The people are forced to play a death game where if the participant with followers dies, they will also die.
* ''[[UQ Holder]]''
* 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
* [[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.}}
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== [[Literature]] ==
* 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.▼
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
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== [[Web Original]] ==
<!-- 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 web novel
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Parodied in ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''
== Other Media ==
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Pages Original to All The Tropes]]
[[Category:Magic and Powers]]
[[Category:Paranormal Tropes]]
[[Category:Technology Tropes]]
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