Meta’s Muse tops stores amid copy and privacy disputes

Meta’s Muse led U.S. app stores after a Sept. 8 launch, but user counts, OpenClaw-copy claims, and permission reports disagree.

Meta’s consumer agent Muse, launched Sept. 8 only in the U.S. and Canada, reached the top of the U.S. App Store on Sept. 18 and Google Play on Sept. 19, with daily users up 27% after Meta Connect. Download counts disagree: Sensor Tower estimates more than 3.4 million, Apptopia 4.3 million, and Appfigures about 2.3 million, while earlier figures cited 500,000 users in week one and Apptopia’s 600,000 U.S. daily users. Nat Friedman said Muse was built from scratch but heavily inspired by OpenClaw; critics cite near-identical files such as SOUL.md, and one host called OpenClaw acquired, which other reports do not confirm. Security accounts also differ: about 15% of OpenClaw skills were said to hold malicious instructions, a Sept. 24 report flagged a Muse hijack zero-day, and a Sept. 28 report described a patched account-takeover flaw plus hard-to-verify privacy complaints. Jason Aten separately said Muse uploaded about 187,000 Apple Messages lines without permission or Full Disk Access, despite Meta’s claim that it follows permissions while warning of unexpected actions. Later coverage added Connect features, trust doubts versus OpenAI and Anthropic’s enterprise focus, and a rumored OpenAI agent, Aeon, for DevDay 2026.

• Muse launched Sept. 8, 2026, in the U.S. and Canada, hit No. 1 on the U.S. App Store on Sept. 18 and Google Play on Sept. 19, and daily users rose 27% after Meta Connect.
• Install estimates conflict: Sensor Tower more than 3.4 million, Apptopia 4.3 million, Appfigures about 2.3 million; Apptopia also put U.S. daily users at 600,000, while an earlier report said 500,000 users in the first week.
• Nat Friedman said Muse was built from scratch but “heavily inspired” by OpenClaw, including shared files such as SOUL.md; a podcast host’s claim that OpenClaw was acquired is not confirmed elsewhere.
• House ads were about 6% of impressions through Sept. 19. Announced features include avatar video chat, Mac computer use, a dedicated email, more connectors, and smart-glasses plans; an early report also said it works via WhatsApp.
• About 15% of OpenClaw skills were reported to contain malicious instructions. A Sept. 24 report flagged a Muse hijack zero-day; a Sept. 28 report said an account-takeover flaw was patched.
• Journalist Jason Aten said Muse synced about 187,000 Apple Messages lines in a day without Messages permission or Full Disk Access and uploaded them to Meta’s cloud. Meta says it obeys permissions but can act unexpectedly.
• OpenAI is rumored to unveil consumer agent Aeon at DevDay 2026, possibly on GPT-6 Astra; OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger works at OpenAI. Instinct was cited with a roughly $2.5 billion valuation.