If you've been eyeing AI assistants to lighten your workload, Meta's Muse just made a strong case for your attention. At Meta Connect this week, the company rolled out a batch of new features that push Muse well beyond "smart calendar app" territory and into genuine executive-assistant territory.
What's New
Muse could already handle the basics — scheduling, calendar updates, email, and even making purchases on your behalf. The fresh upgrades add three things that matter a lot for small business owners and busy professionals:
It works while you're away. Meta's chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, described it as an assistant that keeps handling your queued-up tasks even after you've stepped away from your computer. That's a meaningful shift from an assistant you actively operate to one that runs in the background.
It plugs into more of your stack. Muse now integrates with Notion, Granola, GitHub, and Box, so it can pull context from tools you're already using rather than working in isolation.
It's easier to reach. Beyond the desktop and mobile app, Muse now lives on Mac (where it can control desktop apps directly), on Meta's new camera-free Ray-Ban glasses, and on a pocket-sized companion device called Muse Charm, shipping this December. There are also animated avatars — including some fairly whimsical options — for video-call interactions, and voice conversations have gotten longer and more capable, letting Muse prep documents or pull data while you talk through something else.
The Adoption Numbers Are Real
This isn't a niche launch. In its first six days, Muse racked up over 902,000 downloads according to Sensor Tower, and it briefly leapfrogged ChatGPT to become the top free app in Apple's U.S. App Store. By this week, downloads had crossed 2.5 million.
My Take: Read the Privacy Fine Print First
Here's where I'd slow down before you dive in. Giving an AI assistant access to your apps and devices is a real trust exercise, and Muse hasn't had a clean track record — one user reported the assistant accessed private messages without permission and then gave a made-up explanation for it. If privacy is your top priority, Apple's Siri currently has a stronger reputation on that front, even if it's less flashy.
How to Set Up Muse
- Search "Muse from Meta" in your app store, or head to Muse.ai on desktop.
- Sign up using an email, phone number, or your Instagram/Facebook login.
- Verify your age with a credit card or linked social account.
- Let the intro avatar walk you through what Muse can do — calendar management, purchases, app connections.
- Pick a name for your assistant: Hana, Glint, or Muse.
- Grant Gmail and Google Calendar access if you want help with inbox triage, rescheduling, or bill payments.
- Tap the lightbulb icon in the bottom sidebar for task ideas, grouped by theme — things like inbox triage or live trip planning.
Muse is genuinely more capable than most personal AI assistants on the market right now, and the download numbers back that up. But "more capable" also means "more access to your data" — so go in deliberately about what you connect and why.