Possible continuity error in how the PokéNav Plus works in ΩRαS

[Red Knight]

So during the Delta Episode in ΩRαS, Steven Stone calls your PokéNav Plus by using a beta version of the Entry Call app, which is still in development and thus not available to ordinary users. But at the beginning of the game, Professor Birch is clearly communicating with you via your PokéNav Plus, and he is definitely communicating with you live, since he reacts to the fact that you are, in fact, the kid moving in next door. ("Ah! I see! You're THAT [name]! You're the one who's moving to Littleroot Town, where I live!") Not to mention the whole thing where you apparently transmit a video of yourself to him. I suppose we can chalk that particular anomaly up to "the game wants to show you what your character looks like before you start controlling them" or something, but it still raises a lot of questions.

Also, I can't help but find it funny that the classic PokéNav back in Emerald had the Match Call function, but the PokéNav Plus does not have a similar function until the postgame. I haven't played the original Ruby or Sapphire though, and according to the wiki Match Call was only in Emerald, so maybe this delay is a reflection of this. But I like to imagine that Devon Corp partook in enshittification and only brought back a calling function for the PokéNav Plus after consumer outcry.

 

[Red Knight]

I mean, why would they call it the "PokéNav Plus" if there wasn't already a PokéNav? Maybe the old PokéNavs in the timeline(s) ΩRαS is in never had Match Call developed for them.

Also, perhaps Professor Birch has beta access to Entry Call for similar reasons Steven does. He's a pretty prominent figure in Hoenn, after all. Certainly not on the same level as "the Champion and also the company president's son," but still. But then, how does Birch call you if you don't have beta access to Entry Call? Wouldn't you need the Entry Call app yourself to be able to receive calls? (I'm no tech wiz, I could very much be wrong about that. And clearly PokéNav Plus devices can already communicate with each other in some capacity, since how else could stuff like Trainer's Eyes update in real time? But if the ability to call people is a beta feature, it seems like you'd need that beta software on your device to receive calls as well.)

By the time Steven calls you in the postgame, you've saved the region and entered the Hall of Fame, so I could see why you might have been given that beta software update; being able to have you on call makes sense. (Though the fact that you are not aware that Entry Call exists until Steven calls you indicates that either this update was done via a backdoor, or perhaps you were just sent a notice saying "Your PokéNav Plus needs a software update" and you just accepted it without really reading through what the update entails. I could easily see the player character not bothering to read all the info.).

But when you're just moving in to Littleroot? No one in Hoenn (besides Norman, of course) even knows you. Maybe you had prior corespondence with Birch? But the way Birch talks to you in the intro, it seems he doesn't even realize it's you until you give him your name. Maybe there's some kind of special app where you call Birch to register as a Trainer or something? But if that's a thing that exists, why is Entry Call still in beta? Is the "call Birch and register as a Trainer" app also a beta thing?

 

[Red Knight]

Another fact of interest: in the intro, we see 4 of the 6 menu icons on the screen of the PokéNav Plus (ignore the speedrunning info, I don't feel like cropping that out of the screenshot):

Namely, the Bag, Trainer ID, Save, and Options items are visible at the bottom of the device's screen. Since you do not yet have Pokémon, and no one has given you a Pokédex, it makes sense that the player character would not have those apps installed. But this brings up even more questions about how the PokéNav Plus functions, as well as how Bags function.

Three of the options here make a lot of sense. The ability of the PokéNav to examine the status of your Pokémon was explicit even in RSE, where you could check your Pokémon's Conditions (i.e. Contest stats) from the PokéNav option in the pause menu. So the PokéNav Plus's apparent ability to check your Pokémon's status is consistent with this fact. I don't think RSE drew as clear a connection between your party screen (the one accessed from the Pokémon option in the pause menu) and the PokéNav, but this seems to suggest that, at least in ΩRαS, the party screen is not just an abstraction for the player, but something that the player character is directly using in-universe. Likewise, the saving feature is shown in-game as the player character writing down what happened to them in a journal, so the save feature being some kind of journaling app makes sense. And the Options menu is obviously a settings menu for the device. But the other three "apps" have some complications.

Firstly, the Pokédex. This seems to suggest that the Pokédex in ΩRαS is a PokéNav app, rather than its own device. While SwSh and SV similarly have their Pokédexes as a phone app, almost every other instance of the Pokédex is at least implied to be a self-contained device. This is interesting in and of itself, but when Professor Birch gives you the Pokédex, he says that he "ordered" it, implying that the Pokédex is a physical object that needed to be ordered and delivered rather than a piece of software to be downloaded and installed. This seems to conflict with the implications of this screenshot. There are a couple of explanations that could be offered to reconcile this conflict; perhaps the Pokédex here is a hardware add-on to the PokéNav, or perhaps the PokéNav can interface wirelessly with the Pokédex. Or, if the Pokédex is still just an app, maybe whoever made the Pokédex in this timeline charges users an installation fee, similar to how Microsoft charges for their Office suite or Adobe for their programs; people do sometimes use "ordered" in the context of software when they are buying it rather than just downloading it for free.

Secondly, what I would consider to be the Gigantamax Copperajah in the room, the Bag. You can access your Bag menu through the PokéNav. Does this mean that your bag interfaces with the PokéNav? That it's essentially a personal PC system you can store items in? Being able to store items in a computer has been around ever since Red and Blue, where you had limited bag space and the PC was a way to store items you weren't using so they didn't clog your bag. And storing items has always been done through the player character's PC, not through Bill's PC or Lanette's PC or whoever else's PC. And ever since Diamond and Pearl, bag space has been infinite, and the ability to store items in stationary PC devices rendered obsolete and thus removed. Is this the Watsonian reason for this? That a portable means of accessing people's Item Storage System was found? So your bag is basically a hard drive where your items are digitally stored until they are called upon? (As a side note, this also potentially means that item duplication glitches exist in universe.) I realize this may be old news at this point, but I find the connection between the bottomless Bag and the Item Storage System fascinating. And it seems that in ΩRαS, the PokéNav Plus is the means by which you access your personal item storage.

This doesn't necessarily explain the Trainer Card, though. The Trainer Card seems to be shown as a physical object that is inlaid into a physical badge case. Perhaps it's a similar story to the Bag items.