Meta's Muse Expands to iPad in Record Time
If there was any doubt about how seriously Meta is taking AI, here's a fresh signal: the company announced Wednesday that its Muse assistant is now available in a dedicated iPad app. That's a milestone it took Instagram roughly 15 years to reach—despite constant user demand.
Muse, by contrast, arrived on iPad just one month after its iPhone debut. (To be fair, porting a text-heavy assistant like Muse to iPad is likely less demanding than adapting a visual platform like Instagram, since image and video resolution and formatting matter far less.)
Rapid Adoption Since Launch
Since launching on iOS and Android on September 8, Muse has surpassed 6.6 million installs, according to estimates from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. The app—now one of dozens of consumer-facing AI agents vying for attention in 2026—lets users connect their accounts to stay on top of email, meetings, bills, and more, while completing tasks like booking reservations, ordering groceries, setting goals, and making purchases.
To make this work, Meta has been steadily adding partners, which appear in Muse as "connectors." Users can selectively add and sign in to each one, depending on which parts of their online life they're comfortable letting an AI agent handle.
Expanded Connector and Retail Partnerships
With the iPad release, Meta has updated its connector lineup with several newer additions, including tools aimed at small businesses such as Asana, Canva, Dropbox, Figma, QuickBooks, GitHub, Klaviyo, and Zoom, alongside connectors for Meta ad accounts. Notion and Granola have also joined the roster.
In addition, Meta recently announced more retail partners—including Best Buy, Gap, Sephora, Walmart, and Wayfair—that allow the agent to shop those retailers' sites and complete transactions on users' behalf. Because the technology is still nascent, these experiences can still run into friction as websites mistake agents for bots and block their access.
A New Standard for Distinguishing Agents from Bots
On Tuesday, Meta announced it is working with industry partners on a technical solution to that problem: an open standard that would let personal AI agents identify themselves to businesses. The effort aims to help businesses distinguish legitimate agents from malicious bots—a critical piece of infrastructure as agentic AI moves further into mainstream commerce in 2026.
via TechCrunch AI