Meta's Muse Agent App Knocks ChatGPT Off the Top of the App Store

Meta's personal AI agent, Muse, took the number one spot on the free iPhone chart in the US App Store this week, pushing ChatGPT into second. Meta launched it on September 8 as an agent that acts rather than answers: it opens a browser, fills forms, sends mail, books and pays, and keeps working after the app is closed. It is US-only for now, free for basic use with paid tiers above it.

What was announced

Meta announced Muse on September 8 and released iPhone and Android apps alongside a web version at muse.ai; it also answers inside WhatsApp, and Meta says AI glasses come later. By September 18 it had displaced ChatGPT at the top of the US free iPhone chart, and it was still there on September 21.

What separates it from a chatbot, per Meta's own description: Muse carries out tasks rather than replying to them. It opens a browser and fills in forms, sends email, books travel, makes shopping recommendations and negotiates on the user's behalf, builds action plans for longer goals, and keeps running after the app is closed. The model behind it is Muse Spark, which Meta calls its most capable model to date.

The plumbing is where the interesting claims sit. Each user gets a Muse Secure VM — a dedicated cloud virtual machine with isolated storage for data and credentials — and a separate Sentinel agent approves every action headed for the internet. Meta says credentials stay hidden from Muse itself, users pick which apps it may connect to and at what permission level, sensitive actions need approval, there is a full audit trail, and any service can be disconnected or excluded from training.

Meta describes it as free for most use with subscription plans above that; the tiers quoted around launch, as of September 2026, are $20 and $100 a month.

What it means for players

An agent that can pay for things is a different risk category from an assistant that drafts text. The permission model is the part worth reading before connecting a mail account or a card: what Muse may reach, what needs approval, and what the audit trail shows are the three questions that matter, and Meta answers all three in its announcement — which is more than most agent apps do.

The chart position is a marketing fact rather than a quality one. A free app from a company with WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook to promote it reaches the top of a free chart quickly; retention after the first week is what will say whether it works.

What happens next

Muse is US-only at launch, with other countries promised without dates, and glasses support is unscheduled. Meta says a Confidential VM encryption layer arrives later.