Meta Muse Reaches 2nd Place on US iOS, but with a Mixed Start

Key Takeaways

1Muse reaches second place in the US App Store with over 83,000 downloads on iOS

2The launch lags behind Threads, Meta AI, and ChatGPT

3The app is limited to the United States, and its web and WhatsApp usage is not counted

4Instinct, the main competitor, is accelerating its features and has significant funding

Why it matters : Muse embodies Meta's strategy on consumer AI agents, but its initial adoption reveals intense competition and a sensitive regulatory context.

Muse climbs to the top of the U.S. iOS rankings while lagging behind previous mobile hits from Meta and the launch of ChatGPT. The app arrives just as Meta emerges from a massive settlement and requests more personal data, in a tight race with Instinct for consumer agents.

Personal Data Demands and a Heavy Regulatory History

Muse requires users to provide more personal information to Meta. Its launch comes just days after Meta agreed to an $18 billion multistate settlement related to the harms caused by social media. The company has also been involved in significant data scandals over the years, and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has repeatedly penalized it for privacy violations.

iOS Visibility, Weakness on Android, and Uncounted Channels

In the United States, Muse has reached the second spot on the App Store rankings, moving up from fourth place on Wednesday to second today. On Android, the app only reached a ranking of 338 in the Productivity category, and its download figures are not yet available. Muse is also accessible via the web and through WhatsApp, but these uses are not included in the estimates, and the app remains limited to the U.S. market for now.

Initial Download Volume Lower Than Previous Launches

According to Sensor Tower, Muse has been downloaded over 83,000 times on iOS in the U.S. This launch remains modest compared to Threads, which surpassed 4.3 million downloads on its launch day, and the Meta AI app, which recorded 108,000 installations at launch.

Le brief IA que lisent les pros

Le brief IA que les pros lisent chaque soir

Les 7 actus IA du jour, décryptées en 5 min. Gratuit.

Inclus dès l'inscription : notre sélection des meilleurs guides & comparatifs IA.

Choisissez votre rythme

Gratuit · Pas de spam · Désabonnement en 1 clic

Gap with ChatGPT in the First Week

ChatGPT exceeded 500,000 installations in the U.S. in less than a week after its arrival, while Muse took about twice as long to reach an equivalent level of downloads. Distributing ChatGPT's installations evenly, this represents an average of 83,300 downloads per day at launch.

A Race for Consumer Agents Where Instinct Stands Out

Muse is part of one of Meta's significant bets, which believes that agents capable of performing tasks for users are the future of consumer AI. Other players are advancing their offerings, such as Google’s Gemini Spark and Anthropic’s Claude Cowork. For easy-to-use consumer agents, the current competition is primarily between Muse and Instinct, a text-based AI agent recently valued at $2.5 billion. Despite concerns about security and a privacy policy deemed too broad, Silicon Valley insiders praise Instinct's capabilities. This service has $350 million, launched email addresses for all its users this week, announced the construction of a social network allowing an agent to communicate with friends, and deployed integrations with Stripe and 1Password, as well as a location-sharing feature. Since Muse's launch, Meta is beginning to attract Wall Street's attention.