Meta announced that its Muse personal assistant is now available as a dedicated iPad app. The release is a notable step in the company’s consumer AI efforts and follows the iPhone launch by about a month.
Installs and capabilities
Muse launched on iOS and Android on September 8, 2023, and has reached an estimated 6.6 million installs, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. The app helps users manage email, meetings, bills and other personal or work-related tasks. It can book reservations, order groceries, set goals and complete purchases on behalf of users.
Connectors and business integrations
To enable these features, Meta has added a range of partners that appear in Muse as “connectors.” Users can selectively add and sign into these connectors depending on which parts of their online life they want an AI agent to manage. With the iPad release, Meta updated the list of supported integrations to include several newer additions aimed at small businesses — Asana, Canva, Dropbox, Figma, QuickBooks, GitHub, Klaviyo and Zoom — as well as Meta ad account connectors. Notion and Granola were also added.
Retail partners and shopping on behalf of users
Meta recently announced additional retail partners such as Best Buy, Gap, Sephora, Walmart and Wayfair. These partnerships allow Muse to browse those retailers’ websites and complete transactions for users.
Technical issues and a move toward an open standard
Because agent-driven shopping and web automation are still relatively new, these experiences sometimes encounter problems: websites may mistake automated agents for malicious bots and block their access. Meta said on Tuesday that it is working with industry partners on an open standard that would let personal AI agents identify themselves to businesses. The proposed standard aims to help merchants distinguish legitimate agents from bad actors and reduce erroneous blocks.
Why it matters
Bringing Muse to iPad alongside an expanding set of connectors and retail partners reflects Meta’s push to make personal AI agents more capable and broadly useful. The company’s work on interoperability and identification standards indicates an effort to address reliability and trust issues as these agents interact with external websites and services.
