Nubia hasn’t done much to make Mora actually useful. In our Redmagic 10 Pro review, our reviewer even forgot about her after a few minutes. But that’s not all — introducing an AI ‘waifu‘ raises eyebrows, which can also lead to negative stereotyping. For example, why does a virtual assistant have to be in the form of an anime character, and why does it talk to you in a specific way that differs from other conversationalist AIs?
No Thanks, Keep Reading
Outside the AI quirks and the apparent appeal to gamers and the CN market, it doesn’t have any real use cases. Mora isn’t the virtual AI we want, and here’s precisely why.
What is Redmagic’s virtual assistant?
Nubia’s introduction to Mora seems off, and it fails to sell me
Mora is an AI virtual assistant created by Nubia Redmagic to be used on newer Redmagic phones, starting with the Redmagic 8 Pro. You can enable Mora within the phone’s Game Center, and it’s also available as a standalone app in the CN Nubia Store.
You may miss features if you
port Mora over to older Android versions
.
When you search ‘What is Mora Redmagic,’ you will come across Redmagic’s website, which outlines the virtual AI. The first line prompts:
“Having a smart assistant on your phone, such as Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa isn’t a foreign idea to most smartphone users.”
Which then leads into:
“While her
main priority is to keep gamers entertained
, the AI assistant possesses qualities that make using your REDMAGIC 9 Pro feel a tad more futuristic than any of the other mobile gaming options available.”
Comparing Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa to an AI companion whose main priority is to entertain is an odd choice. I don’t remember the last time I used either for entertainment other than getting Alexa to play my Spotify playlist on my Echo speakers. Moreover, getting Alexa to crack jokes was something I would’ve done nine years ago, but now I barely use them unless it’s for accessibility reasons. I care much more about using generative AI to improve my workflow.
There are arguments that Mora isn’t an AI since she doesn’t offer any useful features. A Reddit user even described her as ‘a glorified Clippy‘ since she lacks basic functions. If you want to know what you can do with Mora, basically, you can have Mora talk to you, watch her sleep via your Always On Display when charging your phone, narrate for you after launching a game, become an alarm, or have her react when touching her.
None of those functions sounds helpful, except maybe the custom alarm sound, but even that’s a stretch given how there are other options for setting custom sounds for notifications. But if you’re gaming, you probably want to silence them anyway.
Mora is more weird than useful
The lack of positive reception shows this
The consensus for Mora is that it’s either somewhat hilarious, weird, or simply useless and that it’s a feature worth ignoring. One Reddit user cited that Mora would moan too often every time it said a line, and they had to turn it off because it started to get annoying.
Right now, the virtual AI assistance seems half-baked, with little to no customizations — and part of the appeal should be the personalization, including changing the voice type, appearance, and turning on/off features. But so far, Mora only has English, Japanese (if your phone language settings are set to Japanese), Chinese voice support, and some dynamic wallpaper options. Plus, the voice lines are pre-recorded, meaning they don’t change.
Thankfully, Mora is off by default, but it has deterred others from getting the Redmagic 9S Pro in case Mora was part of the deal. Luckily, these phones are not using this AI as a selling point, probably because it’s nowhere near ready.
AIs like Mora set a bad precedent
It’s a bit too niche right now
Mora isn’t the first virtual AI assistant to have a specific target audience in mind, and it won’t be the last. However, it does leave room for concern. Top Chinese gacha games make millions monthly selling waifu characters and even ‘husbandos‘ (like Love and Deepspace), showing that there’s definitely a market for them.
On the other hand, promoting these character stereotypes capitalizes on loneliness and puts a stigma on those who indulge in anime and Eastern culture. Targeting a vulnerable age group, like children and teenagers, can also be detrimental, and in some extremes, unsupervised interaction can have horrifying consequences, like what happened when a 14-year-old took their own life after developing an abusive relationship with a virtual character.
There’s still room for niche AIs, but we want more than just a chatbot, as poor use can lead to unhealthy practices and encourage dangerous behaviors. Subsequently, fewer people are warming up to using AI, even straying away from feature-rich AI tools that save hours of tedious work. Having weird gimmick-based AIs like Mora could push people away from trying ones that can help with their homework or improve digital accessibility.
I still stand by the idea that AI itself isn’t bad; it’s more about how we use it — but for AIs with limited use cases, there’s too little to show or sell.
Nubia’s answer to AI is awkward
As someone who loves gaming on their phone, I’d never use Mora. If I want a personalized AI assistant for gaming, I’d like extra help with recording, organizing my screenshots, and even making quicker edits on the fly. If I wanted Mora for entertainment purposes, I would also like customization options that make it less awkward and sexualized. All in all, Mora seems like another weird skin and is far from the true AI assistant users want from their Redmagics.
