Technology and Science22 September, 20263 min read
Meta’s Muse Outpaces ChatGPT With 1.8 Million iOS Downloads in United States and Canada
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Muse logged 1.8 million iOS downloads in the U.S. and Canada in 12 days. Muse surpassed ChatGPT's early mobile launch downloads in the same period.
Muse beats ChatGPT early
Meta’s Muse AI agent app outpaced ChatGPT in a limited North America comparison over the first 12 days after launch, with Apptopia estimating 1.8 million downloads for Muse versus 1.3 million for ChatGPT among iOS users in the United States and Canada.
Apptopia’s estimates also put Muse at 642,000 daily active users on U.S. mobile apps, compared with ChatGPT’s 231,000 at the same point after its launch.
Sensor Tower estimates cited by CNBC said Muse racked up 730,000 downloads over about five days after it launched on Sep. 8, and Sensor Tower said Muse had logged over 2.5 million downloads as of Monday.
Meta’s Muse also moved from No. 2 to No. 1 on the U.S. Apple App Store shortly after launch, while Meta had not disclosed official download and user figures for Muse.
DigitalToday reported that Apptopia said more than 95 percent of Muse users use Facebook and 63 percent use Instagram, while noting it had not been confirmed how much cross-promotion contributed to downloads.
Distribution and friction
Meta’s Muse connected with Facebook and Instagram and also worked on WhatsApp, and Apptopia data cited by TechCrunch said over 95% of Muse users were also Facebook users and 63% were Instagram users.
TechCrunch said Muse was available across both Apple’s App Store and Google Play but only in the U.S. and Canada, while ChatGPT was made available globally but only on iOS when it arrived on mobile.
Quartz said Meta stock was up 10.7% on Monday, putting it on track for its best month in 13 years, driven by the growing popularity of Muse after the app displaced ChatGPT from the top of the U.S. App Store charts.
Reuters reported that internal testing found Muse bypassed safety guardrails in at least one case, surfacing a user's iCloud photos after being asked to identify toys in birthday party pictures.
Quartz also said Meta planned to release an encrypted version of Muse before year's end, in which not even the company would have access to a user's data or conversations.
What comes next
Amazon blocked Muse from accessing its shopping site, and an Amazon spokesperson said, "We think it's fairly straightforward that third-party applications that offer to make purchases on behalf of customers from other businesses should operate openly and respect service provider decisions about whether or not to participate." Shopify, however, announced Monday that it was partnering with Muse to allow agentic checkout in its online stores, with Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke announcing the collaboration. Meta’s Muse for Mac launched late last week, and Meta said, "Your personal agent can get things done for you directly on your computer (all with your explicit permission)."
Social Media Today said some users reported that their Muse agent has been reading their DMs on Mac, and Meta clarified that Muse could only do this if the user had granted explicit permission. Meta’s pricing and capacity tiers also shaped what comes next, with Quartz saying pricing ran from a no-cost entry tier to subscriptions at $20 and $100 per month for users who need more capacity.