Free Steam app Desktop Mate adds cute Anime companion to your PC (ft. Hatsune Miku DLC)

Desktop Mate is a small app you can install on your PC to get yourself a cute companion! It also launched with Hatsune Miku as an available character.

Desktop Mate is available on Steam. It's developed by infiniteloop, and this is their only credited product on the marketplace. The base app is free of charge.

Upon installation, a cute girl manifests herself on your screen: AI Elle-tan. She is infiniteloop's original character, and she quickly makes herself home on your screen. She'll idle through her animations, but you can directly interact by putting your mouse cursor nearby, or by directly "touching" her using the cursor.

You can choose where to put AI Elle-tan by dragging. You can drag her on the top edge of windows, or your taskbar, and she'll perch on it. Her size is adjustable too, and the app is very generous when it comes to resizing her.

The app has a built-in alarm feature where you can set a time up to 24 hours in the future. When the alarm pops, AI Elle-tan will pop up on your screen and make sure you notice her. A gentle alarm sound will also play.

For Vocaloid fans, there is a DLC to add Hatsune Miku as your Desktop Mate. This DLC will run you USD$15 to enable the feature to switch AI Elle-tan to her. This is the first DLC of many, it seems, as Snow Miku is set to also be added to the list of Desktop Mates on Feb. 8.

As of its current state, it is an incredibly simple app. It launched on Jan. 8, 2025, so this isn't a diss as much as it is an observation. The developers are keen on not only adding new characters, but also functionality, to their application.

Part of their Steam description reads "Desktop Mate will continue to evolve as a platform with new ways to interact with the characters and the addition of useful functions." For now, though, it serves the purpose of adding a cute anime girl on your screen.