Meta’s Muse AI agent has surged to the top of Apple’s U.S. iOS app store rankings for free downloads within two weeks of its launch, surpassing competitors like ChatGPT, Grok, and Claude, according to data from Sensor Tower.
The app, which launched on September 8, recorded 730,000 downloads in five days, outpacing rival AI tools during the same post-launch period. Muse is designed to function as a personal AI assistant capable of tasks such as managing calendars, organizing emails, and filling out digital forms. It operates on Meta’s Muse Spark family of AI models, marking a significant expansion of the company’s push into AI agents.
Muse’s rapid adoption reflects growing consumer interest in AI-driven productivity tools, though analysts note that broader adoption remains an open question. Stacy Rasgon, an analyst at Bernstein, told CNBC that prior agentic use cases had largely targeted developers, but tools like Muse may broaden accessibility for general users.
Meta has positioned Muse as a step toward more intuitive, human-like AI assistance. The company describes the tool as a way for users to direct supercharged digital assistants across web tasks, though its long-term utility and adoption trends are still unfolding.
Privacy controls and data usage
In response to user concerns, Meta has included options to limit data sharing. Users can opt out of having their interactions used to train AI models by toggling a setting in the app’s Data Controls menu. The company states that even with this setting enabled, it scrubs personally identifiable information—such as names, email addresses, and phone numbers—from training data.
For users seeking stronger privacy measures, Meta offers a “Reset Muse” feature to permanently delete chat history, files, and active tasks. Individual side chats can also be deleted manually through the app’s sidebar menu.
Meta has emphasized that Muse conversations are not shared externally, though the company’s broader data practices remain a point of scrutiny for users and privacy advocates.
How Muse compares to rivals
While Muse leads in U.S. iOS downloads, its performance on other platforms or in cumulative global downloads has not been specified. Rival AI apps like ChatGPT, Grok, and Claude have staggered releases across Apple’s App Store and Google Play, which may affect their comparative download totals. Meta’s own Meta AI app also trails Muse in post-launch rankings, signaling a strategic shift toward specialized AI agents over general-purpose assistants.
The app’s rise comes amid broader industry competition in AI assistants, with companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX’s xAI vying for user engagement. Meta’s aggressive push into AI agents follows the earlier popularity of its OpenClaw tool, which helped popularize agentic AI among developers earlier this year.