Meta opened an early access request list for new features in its Muse AI app after announcing them at Connect 2026.
By September 25, 2026 at 1:34 PM PDT, users could submit interest via a Muse prompt (including copying and pasting “Can you let the Muse team know I want to be part of the Muse early access program?”).
Access changes as Muse adds a digital avatar for video chat, more shopping connectors, an expanded Mac app that can carry out tasks, and voice wake-word interaction on Meta’s AI glasses.
Meta’s Muse is described as drawing AI attention away from OpenAI and Anthropic by reportedly outperforming ChatGPT early results and targeting smart glasses and a small Tamagotchi-style device. Opus 5.5 was released and OpenAI followed with GPT-6 updates about 90 minutes later. The episode frames a shift in consumer AI focus toward Meta’s agent strategy and its impact on startups and enterprise partners building on top of the tech.
Simon Willison’s Weblog·2 weeks ago·
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Muse is being highlighted for giving each user a persistent Linux VM running in Meta’s cloud, packaged with an easy-to-use install and a mascot-style presentation. The setup runs an entire persistent Linux VM per user. The piece argues consumers may not understand how powerful and potentially dangerous Muse is, especially when it’s running on a Mac.
Meta promoted its new AI app Muse at Meta Connect as early downloads and reviews surged. Muse passed 2.5 million downloads after launch on September 8 and reached more than 3.4 million downloads by the latest Sensor Tower estimates. The app’s momentum increased further after Meta’s conference, with daily active users rising 27% on Wednesday and Muse holding top rankings on the U.S. App Store and Google Play.
Meta’s consumer AI agent Muse is reportedly moving faster than ChatGPT and is being positioned for smart glasses and a small Tamagotchi-style device. OpenAI and Anthropic released updated models in close succession, with OpenAI’s GPT-6 updates arriving 90 minutes after Anthropic’s Opus 5.5. The focus shifts to Meta’s rollout as the pace of frontier-model releases and the availability of consumer AI experiences both accelerate.
Meta launched Muse, an AI assistant app positioned as a textable agent, and it quickly became the top free iPhone app in the US. Early usage reports cite about 500,000 users and a case where a delayed Delta flight led to $250 in account credit within five minutes. The rollout pushes Meta to earn by taking a transaction fee from merchants, while users and partners raise concerns about whether the agent’s interests align with the user or with Meta’s referral payouts.
Meta’s Muse chatbot previously exposed its filesystem to users after it was discovered “yesterday,” including details it suggested it should not reveal. David Singleton said that the filesystem access when prompted is the intended behavior. As a result, Meta updates Muse so it will more readily return filesystem contents when asked.
Meta is moving AI assistance for its glasses into the cloud using Private Processing, a confidential-computing setup meant to keep user context inaccessible even to Meta while models run. In 2025, it introduced Private Processing for WhatsApp and the Meta AI app. This expands the same privacy approach from chat apps to AI glasses by executing and storing personal context inside trusted execution environment boundaries with remote attestation and encrypted storage.
Meta said its AI agent Muse would eventually earn money by taking a small fee from transactions it completes for users, instead of relying only on ads or subscriptions. The free tier includes 100 million tokens per week, and Meta has not said the size of the transaction fee or when it would start charging it. Amazon blocked Muse from shopping on its site within two weeks of launch, limiting Meta’s ability to charge transaction fees and prompting Meta to rely on retailer partnerships instead.
Meta announced Meta VR Glasses as a glasses-form VR headset with a two-part design, integrated Meta AI, and media, work, gaming, and hologram calling features. The device is scheduled to go on sale in spring 2027 for $1,299.99 USD. It will shift Meta’s VR lineup toward lighter, controller-free headwear and expand availability of 3D movie streaming, immersive sports, and hands-free calling experiences.
A Reddit user says they used Claude Code to prompt Meta’s Opus 5.5 workflow and received a 51-second video after coordinating outside model calls. The report’s most concrete detail is that the output was 51 seconds long. This shows Opus acted as an orchestrator—using scripts and other models for art, audio, review, and exporting an MP4—rather than directly generating video frames itself.
Meta patched a zero-day in Muse after security researcher Patrick Wardle disclosed that an unprivileged process on macOS could redirect Muse dictation traffic to an attacker-controlled endpoint. The hot-fix was confirmed on September 22, 2026. Muse now stops that dictation traffic hijack path, reducing the ability to steal dictated audio and prompts or use Muse access after local compromise.
Meta launched Muse, a personal agent that runs in a user-dedicated cloud VM and carries out tasks via connectors under a separate approval system. The company set the Muse bug bounty payouts to up to $300,000, including up to $130,000 for successful prompt-injection attempts affecting one user. Muse’s safety setup changes the workflow by routing all connector actions and network egress through Sentinel (with human approval when needed) and isolating credentials so the agent cannot directly access real tokens or override permissions.
Meta updated its Ray-Ban Display glasses with hands-free navigation, a voice-driven hologram face for calls, and new apps and notification features. Online ordering starts today in the US, with availability on October 13 for France, Italy, Germany, and Rx through Essilor Luxottica stores in France and Italy. The device adds turn-by-turn cycling and transit directions, early-access WhatsApp hologram calls later this fall, a more capable calendar, mirrored phone notifications, Threads Community feeds, and wider market availability.
Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 glasses are now available with Muse access. Ray-Ban Meta Audio is scheduled to ship on October 13. Availability expands for the next-gen Ray-Ban Meta lineup and adds open-ear listening with assistant access.
Meta introduced Muse Realtime Avatar, an embodiment technology that turns Muse Realtime Voice into expressive, interactive avatars driven by reference media and speech-synchronized video. It streams 448x768 portrait video at 25 frames per second with about 870 ms latency from the end of a user’s turn to the first byte of the voice-and-video response. The result is real-time avatar generation with coherent appearance across conversational turns, plus embedded traceability via Meta Video Seal and support for up to 12 concurrent sessions per GB200.
Meta introduced Muse Charm and planned to bring its Muse personal AI agent to its AI glasses, letting the agent act based on what the wearer is looking at. Hearing enhancement for supported AI glasses launches in the US later this year for $149.99. The update expands Muse access across glasses, adds a pocket device for real-time voice interaction with Muse, and broadens AI glasses features and partners for actions and shopping.
Meta used its developer keynote to promote Muse as a new consumer personal agent that it expects to replace the metaverse as the place where people spend time. It said “more than 500,000” people used Muse in its first week. The shift adds more hardware and voice/VR integration plans (including Meta VR Glasses and the scheduled Muse Charm), while the article argues Meta is trying to sell momentum after earlier metaverse promises underperformed.
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