Meta’s AI agent Muse lands on Apple Watch

Meta is bringing its Muse AI agent to the Apple Watch and Android’s Wear OS, the company announced on Monday. With the launch, users can now interact with Meta’s AI assistant through voice calls, text messages, or dictation directly on their smartwatch.

The smartwatch launch comes just a month after Meta introduced a dedicated iPad app for Muse. First launched on the App Store in September, the AI assistant’s expansion across Apple devices signals Meta’s growing ambitions for its consumer AI product and its focus on making Muse a central part of its ecosystem.

Muse is now one of dozens of consumer-facing AI agents competing for users’ attention. Like many of its competitors, it allows users to connect their accounts to manage email, meetings, bills, and more, while also handling tasks such as booking reservations, ordering groceries, setting goals, and making purchases.

Users can also personalize their Muse avatar to their liking and change it into something that resembles a person, an animal, or another type of character.

Despite being a relatively new product, Meta has wasted little time introducing new capabilities to Muse.

A few days ago, Meta launched Spaces, a new way to communicate and collaborate with Muse. Spaces function as dedicated conversations around specific topics, which Meta describes as “custom experiences” as they’re mini apps that are built on the fly. They appear in the sidebar of the Muse interface and bring up a focused conversation where the AI agent works toward a particular goal on the user’s behalf.

Last week, Meta rolled out the ability for users in the U.S. to video chat with their Muse AI avatar. Meta said Muse will use “subtle expressions and gestures” that reflect the tone and context of the conversation as it speaks. It’s worth noting that Muse doesn’t actually see users, but can hear them and respond in real-time.

Shortly after its launch, Muse became one of just 12 mobile apps to have surpassed 10 million U.S. downloads within their first 40 days in the App Store. Only 11 other apps have achieved this milestone, with Meta’s Threads being the most recent in July 2023.

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Aisha is a consumer news reporter at TechCrunch. Prior to joining the publication in 2021, she was a telecom reporter at MobileSyrup. Aisha holds an honours bachelor’s degree from University of Toronto and a master’s degree in journalism from Western University.

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