The best virtual pet apps and games for Android

Sometimes, having a real pet is difficult. Maybe your apartment complex is strict, or your loved ones are allergic. But you should not worry because there are other alternatives, like virtual pet apps. These are a subset of the simulation genre where you adopt, feed, clean, and take care of a little virtual pet. The genre has its ups and downs, but the games are usually family-friendly and adorable. They also saw a fairly large resurgence in popularity over the last few years. You may even recognize some names on this list, like My Tamagotchi Forever by the same company that did the little Tamagotchis in the 1990s. Here are the best virtual pet apps and games for Android.

Bubbu

Price: Free to play/ In-app purchases ($0.99-$114.99 per item)

Bubbu is similar to Tamagotchi in terms of mechanics. You start out with Bubbu, and you do various things to take care of it, like feed, dress, cuddle, and bathe it. In addition, there are over 30 mini-games. The application also includes a small fashion game element and a house builder element as well. These extra activities give players something to do between the important stuff like feeding. It all centers around the virtual pet theme, and it ties together pretty well, making Bubbu your perfect virtual companion.  

Dogotchi

Price: Free (with ads)

Dogotchi is a throwback to the old Tamagotchi days. It features a very simple 8-bit user interface and a cute little dog to take care of. You give it shots, feed it, play with it, and take care of it. The game features 12 dogs, a growing-up mechanic, various mini-games, and customizable colors. You unlock dogs by raising your existing pups to adulthood. This one is entirely free with no in-app purchases. This makes it a great free option in this genre. 

Frojo virtual pet games

Price: Free (with ads)

Frojo is a developer on Google Play with many virtual pet games. Some options include My Corgi, Moy, Oliver the Virtual Cat, My Chicken, My Lil’ Dino, and many others. The games all play more or less the same way, so all you need to do is choose the animal you want to care for. All the pets are animals except for Moy, which looks like a purple octopus alien creature. The games include a bunch of mini-games and little things you can do to take care of your virtual pet. They are all family-friendly, completely free (with advertising), and easy to play for most people.

Godville

Price: Free to play/ In-app purchases ($0.99-$49.99 per item)

Godville is one of the more unique virtual pet apps we’ve seen. You play the role of God. You have a subject that does all your work for you, including adventuring, slaying bad guys, collecting loot, etc. It’s a ZPG (zero-player game), meaning the game plays itself. You just tell it what to do. But You can have the entire RPG (role-playing game) adventure experience without actually doing it yourself. The player decides things like what guild your minion joins, what quests they do, and even make them build temples for you. It’s a neat little game and surprisingly fun for how little you do.

Hellopet

Price: Free to play/In-app purchases ($1.99-$49.99 per item)

Hellopet is another unique virtual pet game. This one uses screen overlay functionality on your phone and gives you a little pet. The pet runs around on your phone all the time. It may wander by when answering a text message or scrolling your app drawer. The game has you adopting the pet, taking care of it, and playing little mini-games. At its core, it’s a relatively traditional virtual pet game. However, we couldn’t help but geek out when our dog ran across the screen while scrolling Twitter one day. The in-app purchases on this one could be much better, but it doesn’t affect the game’s most fun parts that much.

My Boo

Price: Free to play/ In-app purchases ($1.99-$27.99 per item)

My Boo is another traditional-style virtual pet app and one of the more popular ones. You adopt and raise a cute little blob monster. Players raise it, give it attention, feed it, and customize it with various clothes. You won’t find a lot of unique stuff with this one. The game does all the virtual pet stuff well, so it made our list. The advertising can be slightly over the top sometimes, but you can pay money to make those disappear. It’s a decent overall experience.

My Tamagotchi Forever

Price: Free/In-app purchases ($0.99-$99.99 per item) 

My Tamagotchi Forever is the mobile remake of the famous little game from the 1990’s. However, this doesn’t look or act anything like the classic game. It does provide an excellent virtual pet app experience, though. You adopt your Tamagotchi and do all the usual stuff, including raising, playing, feeding, and cleaning up afterward. This one also includes a neat augmented reality feature that ties into the game nicely. Honestly, we highly recommend the game for its amazing AR features alone. It’s a freemium game with freemium mechanics. However, with patience, you don’t have to worry about them.

Neko Atsume

Price: Free / In-app purchases ($0.99-$3.49 per item)

Neko Atsume is a top-rated cat game. Android Nougat’s Easter egg was very similar to this one. Players spend their time laying out food for cats and then adopt those cats. The goal is to collect all four dozen or so cats available in the game. You can customize the cats’ living environment and give them toys to play with. It’s not a classic virtual pet game. However, it has enough elements, and we really like how adorable this one is.

Pou

Price: Free to play/ In-app purchases ($0.99-$24.99 per item)

Pou is an older virtual pet game, but it’s also trendy. It plays like most virtual pet apps. You get a Pou, and you take care of it. That includes feeding, playing, and dressing it, along with some other game mechanics. It’s not complicated, which we like. You open it, take care of your Pou, and that’s it. Some additional features include cloud saving, relatively frequent updates for bug fixes, and more. It’s safe, fun, and it’s also family-friendly.

Talking Tom series

Price: Free to play (usually)

The My Talking Tom series (by Outfit7) is one of the most iconic mobile virtual pet apps. The original My Talking Tom had over 500 million downloads at the time the article was written. There are many games in the series to choose from, including My Talking Tom 1 and 2, My Talking Angela, Talking Tom Gold Rush, and a few others. You feed your Talking Tom, take it to the bathroom, and even talk to it. There are a bunch of mini-games and customizations to play with as well. The games are still among the best virtual pet apps even after all these years. We linked the whole Outfit7 collection at the button below.