Meta's Muse AI Assistant Arrives on iPad
Meta has released a dedicated iPad app for its Muse assistant, just a month after its debut on phones. The app has passed 6.6 million installs since its September 8 launch.
Meta announced on Wednesday that its Muse AI assistant is now available as a dedicated app for iPad. The release comes less than a month after Muse launched on iPhone and Android. By comparison, Instagram needed roughly 15 years to get an iPad app, even though users kept asking for one. Bringing Muse to the tablet may have been easier, since its interface is largely text-based and image and video resolution and formatting matter less.
Downloads and features
Market intelligence firm Sensor Tower estimates that Muse has been installed more than 6.6 million times since it launched on iOS and Android on September 8. The app is one of dozens of consumer-facing AI agents. It lets users connect their accounts to keep track of email, meetings and bills, and to complete tasks such as booking reservations, ordering groceries, setting goals and making purchases.
New connectors
To make this work, Meta has been adding partners, which appear in Muse as "connectors." Users choose which ones to add and sign in to, depending on how much of their online life they are comfortable letting an AI agent handle. With the iPad release, Meta updated the list with several recent additions. These include connectors aimed at small businesses, such as Asana, Canva, Dropbox, Figma, QuickBooks, GitHub, Klaviyo and Zoom, along with connectors for Meta ad accounts. Notion and Granola were also added.
Meta also recently announced more retail partners, including Best Buy, Gap, Sephora, Walmart and Wayfair. These allow the agent to browse the retailers' sites and complete transactions on users' behalf.
Obstacles and an open standard
Because the technology is still new, the experience can run into problems when websites mistake agents for bots and block their access. On Tuesday, Meta said it is working with industry partners on an open standard that would let personal AI agents identify themselves to businesses. That would help companies tell the good bots from the bad ones.
