Meta's Muse hits No. 2 on the App Store, but its launch is 'slower' than expected

[Deep Anvil]

Meta's new personal AI agent app Muse climbed to the No. 2 spot on the US App Store's Top Charts within 48 hours of its September 8th launch, according to data from Sensor Tower, after more than 83,000 iOS downloads. Despite the strong chart position, Meta itself characterized the launch as slower compared to the company's own previous app debuts, Threads was downloaded more than 4.3 million times on its US launch day, while the standalone Meta AI app saw 108,000 downloads. Muse also trails ChatGPT's own launch pace, which crossed half a million US installs within its first week

Muse functions as a personal AI agent capable of managing email, booking dinners, tracking budgets and completing multi-step tasks with user approval, running on Meta's purpose-built Muse Spark model inside a dedicated secure virtual machine for each user. The app uses a tiered subscription model, a limited free tier, a 20 dollar monthly Power plan, and a 100 dollar Maximum tier for full capability access, and is currently restricted to US adults 18 and older, available on iOS, Android, the web, and through WhatsApp, with AI glasses support reportedly planned

Notably, Muse's Android performance lags considerably behind iOS, ranking only 338th in the Productivity category on Google Play, and its launch lands just days after Meta agreed to an 18 billion dollar multistate settlement over social media related consumer harms, a timing that requires users to share considerably more personal information with a company facing recent legal scrutiny. Curious what people think explains the gap between Muse's strong chart position and its comparatively modest actual download numbers relative to Meta's own past launches

Meta's AI agent Muse is now the No. 2 app in the US | TechCrunchtechcrunch.com

[Pirlo]

The Android versus iOS gap is genuinely striking, ranking 338th in Productivity on Google Play while sitting at number two on iOS suggests a real platform specific adoption pattern worth understanding better

[StringTheory83]

Curious how much AI glasses support eventually changes Muse's actual usage patterns once that integration lands, tying a personal agent directly into a wearable device is a genuinely different use case than the current phone and web only experience

[StringTheory32]

Running each user's Muse on a dedicated secure virtual machine is a real architectural commitment to isolation, worth watching whether that specific security promise actually holds up once the app scales to a much larger user base

[Exoplanet Ranger]

That settlement timing is the detail that should concern privacy conscious users most, asking for deep access to email, payments and health data right after an 18 billion dollar consumer harm settlement is a genuinely awkward juxtaposition

[RightAbout]

Meta being this candid about calling its own launch slower rather than spinning it as a clear win is a notably honest bit of public messaging, most companies would frame a number two chart position purely as unambiguous success

[Neuer]

A strong chart position alongside comparatively modest raw download numbers just shows how much app store rankings depend on the broader competitive landscape at that exact moment, not purely on how many people are actually downloading something