Meta launches agentic AI assistant Muse: No. 2 on US App Store, but hands-on review flags privacy concerns

Meta's first agentic AI productivity agent, Muse, performs shopping, email, trip-planning, and media tasks on a cloud-based virtual computer. A hands-on review found it works well but surfaces Instagram-derived interests beyond what users see in ad-topic…

Meta launched Muse, its first agentic AI productivity assistant, which runs tasks such as shopping, email management, trip planning, media generation, and creating webpages or documents via a cloud-based virtual computer. In a hands-on review published 2026-09-10, The Verge found Muse successfully deleted thousands of promotional emails and completed an Amazon purchase, and it can also generate podcasts, images, videos, and artifacts, though it refused some copyrighted-character and Apple CEO requests. The review's main caveat: Muse revealed detailed personal interests inferred from Instagram and Facebook account API data that is not visible in the apps' ad-topic settings; Meta says Muse only exchanges data needed for third-party integrations and does not share information with advertisers, but the reviewer frames privacy unease as the main adoption hurdle. The same day, TechCrunch reported Sensor Tower data showing Muse was downloaded over 83,000 times on US iOS, climbing from 4th to 2nd on the App Store — still well below Threads' 4.3 million US launch-day downloads and ChatGPT's 500,000 first-week installs. The Android version lags at No. 338 in the Productivity category on Google Play. Muse launched days after Meta's $18 billion multistate settlement over social media consumer harms. Rival agent Instinct, valued at $2.5 billion with $350 million available, recently added Stripe and 1Password integrations.

• Meta launched Muse, its first agentic AI productivity assistant, performing shopping, email management, trip planning, media generation, and webpage/document creation via a cloud-based virtual computer.
• The Verge's hands-on found Muse deleted thousands of promotional emails and correctly completed an Amazon purchase.
• Muse surfaced detailed personal interests inferred from Instagram and Facebook account API data beyond what users see in the apps' ad-topic settings.
• Meta says Muse only exchanges data needed for third-party integrations and does not share information with advertisers; the reviewer cites privacy unease as the main adoption hurdle.
• Muse also generates podcasts, images, videos, and artifacts, and refused some copyrighted-character and Apple CEO requests.
• Sensor Tower reports 83,000+ US iOS downloads, with Muse climbing from 4th to 2nd on the App Store.
• Comparison points: Threads hit 4.3 million US downloads on launch day; ChatGPT reached 500,000 installs in under a week.
• The Android version ranks No. 338 in the Productivity category on Google Play.