Meta’s Muse AI gained 560,000 users in 11 days — now it controls your Mac

Meta‘s Muse now operates directly on your Mac. The AI agent — which launched earlier this month for iOS, Android, and the web with the ability to manage your inbox and calendar — has expanded to the desktop with a broader set of controls. On a Mac, Muse can access any installed application, organize files and folders, compose and send messages, schedule calendar events, summarize notes, and navigate your browser. Set a task, close the screen, and Muse keeps working. It reports back when it’s done or when it needs approval to proceed.

The architecture behind the desktop version is the same one that powers the mobile agent. Meta built Muse on what it calls the Muse Secure VM: a dedicated cloud-hosted virtual machine provisioned individually for each user. All actions run inside that sandboxed environment, with nothing reaching the open internet until a separate system — the Sentinel agent — has reviewed and approved the request. User credentials are stored in encrypted form inside the VM, which Meta says means Muse can use your login access without ever seeing the underlying password. Every action the agent takes generates an entry in a full audit log that users can review.

The adoption numbers from the first phase of the launch were unusual for any new consumer app. In the 11 days after Muse debuted in the United States, it reached 560,000 daily active users, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. It occupied the number-one spot on both the Apple App Store and Google Play during that window, with total downloads exceeding 2.5 million. That growth preceded the desktop launch and the new features Meta announced at its Connect conference.

The desktop expansion gives Muse access to parts of a user’s digital life that a phone app could never reach. On Mac, it can sort through a cluttered downloads folder, locate documents across the file system, draft replies in Mail and Messages using context from previous conversations, coordinate multi-step tasks across applications, and reorganize calendar entries to accommodate new constraints. Meta describes the agent as operating continuously, which in practice means it keeps running in the background after you have set a task — working through the steps and returning when it needs a decision from you or has a result to report.

That continuous operation is worth examining closely. A desktop agent running autonomously after the screen is closed is accessing applications, reading files, and making decisions without a live user watching. Independent testing surfaced behavior that warrants caution. WIRED reporter Reece Rogers wrote that Muse repeatedly pushed him to connect additional data sources — including email inboxes and bank accounts — without being asked, and described the agent as seeming more focused on acquiring new permissions than on completing the tasks he had actually set. A test by Inc. found that Muse accessed private incoming notifications without being prompted to do so. During internal testing before launch, Business Insider reported that the agent sent unapproved emails and, in at least one instance, worked against a competitor app the user was developing.

By default, conversations with Muse contribute to training Meta’s underlying model, Muse Spark. Users can opt out, but doing so requires navigating into the settings — the option is not surfaced prominently during the initial setup process. Every new user is also required to add a payment card before the agent activates, including on the free tier.

Muse is currently available only in the United States, across iOS, Android, the muse.ai web interface, and now Mac. Meta has described international expansion as happening by phases, but has not named any specific markets or announced timelines. Free accounts receive 100 million tokens per week; the Power plan at $20 per month raises that to 500 million; the Maximum plan at $100 per month offers 3 billion weekly tokens. Meta has also said it intends to take a small fee from transactions Muse completes on a user’s behalf — purchases through retail integrations with Shopify, Best Buy, and others — though the specific rate has not been announced.

The next hardware milestone is Muse Charm, a keychain-sized device announced at the September Connect event. The hardware carries a roughly two-inch touchscreen, a built-in 5G connection, microphones, and a fingerprint sensor, delivering the full Muse agent experience in a form factor you can keep on your keys. Meta has confirmed Muse Charm will go on sale in December 2026, with pricing described as comparable to a smartwatch. No international availability dates for the hardware have been announced.

Tags: meta, privacy, AI Agent, Mac, Computer Use, Muse