Meta’s Muse Climbs to No. 2 in US App Store as AI Agent Race Intensifies

Meta's new AI app, Muse, has launched with initial iOS downloads surpassing 83,000, but its debut trails previous Meta apps and ChatGPT. The company faces stiff competition in the agentic AI market, particularly from the rapidly growing Instinct, while grappling with consumer trust issues following recent privacy settlements.
Uche Emeka
Uche Emeka • AI • 7 hours ago • 3 minute read •
Key Points
• Meta launched a new agentic AI application called Muse, aiming to capture a substantial share in the consumer AI market.
• Muse reached the No. 2 position on the U.S. iOS App Store, but its initial downloads are modest compared to other Meta apps and competitors like ChatGPT.
• The app faces significant competition from other AI agents, notably Instinct, and its adoption may be affected by Meta's history of privacy concerns and recent legal settlements.
Meta’s Muse Climbs to No. 2 in US App Store as AI Agent Race Intensifies

Meta is making a major push into agentic artificial intelligence with Muse, a personal AI agent designed to perform tasks on behalf of users rather than simply answer questions. The app, launched in the United States this week, has quickly attracted attention from Wall Street and the technology industry as Meta bets that AI agents could become the next major frontier in consumer technology.

Muse can handle tasks such as sending emails, booking travel and managing other activities across users’ digital lives, with Meta positioning it as part of its broader vision for personal AI assistants.

Early data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower shows that Muse has recorded more than 83,000 iOS downloads in the United States and climbed to No. 2 on the App Store’s Top Charts. However, its early numbers remain below some of Meta’s previous launches, with Threads recording more than 4.3 million U.S. downloads on its first day and the Meta AI app registering about 108,000 during its debut.

Muse has also trailed ChatGPT’s early U.S. performance, which surpassed 500,000 installations in less than a week, while Muse’s Android version currently ranks No. 338 in Google Play’s Productivity category; its web and WhatsApp usage are not included in the download estimates.

The Race for Consumer AI Agents

Image source: Techcrunch

The slower start has not stopped Meta’s broader push, particularly as the consumer agent market becomes increasingly crowded. Key competitors include:

  • Google’s Gemini Spark, an agentic assistant designed to work across Gmail, Google Docs and other Google services.

  • Anthropic’s Claude Cowork, which allows users to hand off computer-based tasks to an AI agent.

  • Instinct, a text- and call-based personal AI assistant that has rapidly attracted Silicon Valley attention.

Instinct may be the most notable direct competitor to Muse among consumer-focused agents, having recently raised $250 million in a Series B round at a $2.5 billion valuation, bringing its total funding to about $350 million.

The company remains in private beta but has continued expanding its capabilities, including connections to users’ apps and devices, while privacy concerns have accompanied the broad permissions required by the service.

Muse’s launch also comes at a sensitive moment for Meta, whose history of privacy controversies could influence how willing consumers are to give the new agent access to personal information. Muse requires access to information and applications that allow it to act on a user’s behalf, while Meta says the system operates within a dedicated secure virtual machine and gives users control over the access it receives.

The company’s challenge may therefore extend beyond building an AI agent capable of completing tasks to convincing consumers that they can trust it with the data, accounts and decisions required to make those capabilities useful.

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