Meta's Muse agent becomes No. 1 free app on US App Store

Meta's Muse became the top free app on Apple's US App Store on 18 September, ten days after its launch, overtaking ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Instagram, according to data from Sensor Tower.

Sensor Tower said Muse had logged more than 730,000 US downloads by that date, averaging about 73,000 downloads a day. ChatGPT averaged 87,000 downloads a day over its first eight days after launch in 2023, according to the same data.

Meta launched Muse on 8 September in the US as a personal AI agent that acts on a user's behalf, sending email, booking trips and restaurants, filling in forms, buying tickets and cancelling forgotten subscriptions. The agent is built on Meta's Muse Spark 1.3 model and is available through the Muse app, at muse.ai and inside WhatsApp.

At launch, Muse connected to Gmail, Google Calendar and Workspace, Outlook, Ticketmaster, OpenTable, Spotify, Apple Health, Peloton, Plaid and Function Health, with purchases processed through Link by Stripe.

Meta said each user's agent runs in a dedicated cloud virtual machine, with a separate system called Sentinel controlling network access and actions. Credentials are kept outside the agent itself, so the model never sees real passwords or card details, according to Meta.

Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced a Mac app for Muse on 17 September, and it was released as a direct download around 18 September. The Mac app organises files, fills in forms and works with Messages, Calendar and Notes, with continuity to the phone app through WhatsApp.

"You choose which apps and services Muse can access, and you can disconnect them anytime," Zuckerberg said.

Muse is free to use, with paid tiers called Power at $20 a month and Max at $100 a month. The app also launched in Canada on 18 September. Meta has not said when or whether it plans further international expansion, according to the Fox Business report and Yahoo Tech's coverage of the launch.