Swapnote

Swapnote, known as Nintendo Letter Box in PAL regions and Itsu no Ma ni Kōkan Nikki (いつの間に交換日記) in Japan, is a messaging application for the Nintendo 3DS family. Swapnote was released on December 21, 2011 in Japan and December 22, 2011 in Europe, Australia and North America via the Nintendo eShop. It can be downloaded at no additional cost and is pre-installed on newer systems. Swapnote is the successor to the PictoChat app for the Nintendo DS family.

History

Swapnote, known as Nintendo Letter Box in PAL regions and Itsu no Ma ni Kōkan Nikki (いつの間に交換日記) in Japan, is a messaging application for the Nintendo 3DS family. Swapnote was released on December 21, 2011 in Japan and December 22, 2011 in North America, Europe, and Australia via the Nintendo eShop, and can be downloaded at no additional cost, and is pre-installed on newer systems.

Discontinuation of SpotPass functions

On October 31, 2013, Nintendo abruptly suspended the Swapnote/Nintendo Letter Box SpotPass functionality presumably after an incident in Japan where minors were sharing Friend Codes with strangers who had exploited the messaging service to allegedly exchange pornographic imagery. Additionally, the Special Notes service, which were also sent via SpotPass to promote Nintendo games, has also been suspended. Nintendo issued an apology to those who had been using the application in a responsible manner. This consequently also suspended the Flipnote Gallery: Friends function for the app Flipnote Studio 3D on the same day.