Meta brings AI agent Muse to Apple Watch and Wear OS

Muse comes to watches and other devices

Meta announced Muse for smartwatches on Monday. The assistant first appeared in the App Store in September, and a month ago the company launched a standalone app for iPad. Its expansion to Apple devices and Wear OS watches shows that Meta is developing Muse for multiple platforms.

Muse is one of dozens of consumer AI agents competing for users’ attention. Users can connect accounts to manage email, meetings and bills. The agent can also book tables, order groceries, help set goals and make purchases.

Users can change Muse’s avatar, choosing a human, animal or other character.

New Muse features

A few days before the smartwatch launch, Meta introduced Spaces, themed environments for interacting and working with Muse. Each space focuses on a separate topic and becomes a focused conversation in which the agent works toward a specific user goal. Meta describes Spaces as “user experiences”: mini-apps created on the fly. They appear in Muse’s sidebar.

A week earlier, Meta added video calls with a Muse avatar for users in the US. During a call, it uses facial expressions and gestures that, the company says, match the conversation’s tone and context. Muse cannot see the user, but it can hear them and respond in real time.

Soon after launch, Muse became one of 12 mobile apps to surpass 10 million downloads in the US within its first 40 days in the App Store. Only 12 apps have reached that mark; before Muse, the last to do so was Meta’s Threads, in July 2023.

Dataist’s take: Meta is steadily expanding the ways people can interact with Muse, from phone and tablet apps to smartwatches and video calls. But video calls remain voice interactions with an avatar: Muse can hear the user, but cannot see them.