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What is Replacing the Miiverse?
Despite Nintendo discontinuing Miiverse, they haven't completely forsaken a communication platform for their players. When Nintendo introduced the Switch, they also debuted Nintendo Switch Online. This new communication platform is a simple chat client that relies on an application on the user's cell phone instead of being built into the console itself. Since it's launch the Switch Network has been seen as a bit of a joke by the gaming community due to how obtuse it is to use.
In an effort to modernize its consoles Nintendo has made voice chat a key feature of this new communication app. However, there are a few major drawbacks to this application. The first is that users have to buy a connector that connects their Switch and a cellphone that is running a Nintendo based chat client in order to use the service.
If only the solution that Nintendo came up with wasn't this big of a mess to carry around. If Nintendo had made the connection to users' cellphones a wireless one I feel that this application would have had a much more positive reaction from Nintendo's audience.
While many users have pushed back against this new application I feel that it could be a step in the right direction if some changes are implemented. A positive trait of the new platform is that this application works very well with the Switch's portability. The use of the users' cellphone connection instead of an internet connection makes it possible for users to take their consoles on the go and communicate anywhere. Perhaps the app could include a feature similar to the StreetPass on the 3DS, in that, it could automatically sends a notification to your device when someone else who is using the app is nearby and what game they are playing. The app could then ask the user if they want to send a direct message to them or invite them to play a game with them. This would help to keep some of the game focused community development ideas that the Miiverse established while updating it to fit the new format.
However, even the StreetPass idea isn't perfect since a majore draw back to StreetPass was that it required the device to always be on in order to send and recieve notifications that another player is near by. That means that a player has to leave their device running, even when they aren't playing, if they want to use StreetPass. So Nintendo could either force the users to keep their phones unlocked or leave their Switchs running while they walk around. With the Switch&apso;s default battery life being around five to six hours, the most likely choice that Nintendo would make would be putting that burden on user's phones. If this were the case, users would need to look at buying a backup power source if they wanted to use StreetPass for an extended amount of time and at that point it would just be too much trouble to use.