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IndustrySeptember 28, 20262 min read

Meta drives explosive growth of AI assistant Muse after Connect showcase

Within weeks of its September launch, Muse surpassed three million installs, benefited from Meta’s aggressive cross-platform advertising and new feature announcements at Connect.

The Muse AI assistant, released on September 8, quickly amassed more than 2.5 million downloads in its first week, according to market-tracking firm Sensor Tower. Updated estimates now place total installations at roughly 3.4 million, while rival analytics providers report figures ranging from 2.3 million to 4.3 million. The app is currently limited to users in the United States and Canada, and its download surge coincided with a high-profile showcase at Meta’s annual Connect developer conference.

In its initial fortnight, Muse achieved an estimated 2.8 million downloads, averaging a 55 percent day-over-day increase, a rate that outpaced the early performance of ChatGPT, which grew at 24 percent during its first ten days. By September 18, Muse claimed the top position on the U.S. App Store, and a day later it reached number one on Google Play, maintaining both spots in the days that followed.

Meta began running internal advertisements for Muse on September 9, a day after launch, and within ten days the app received the bulk of the company’s house-ad inventory, surpassing promotions for Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. By September 22, Sensor Tower recorded Muse among the top ten brands by advertising expenditure. Despite this visibility, house-ad impressions accounted for only about six percent of total ad views for the app through September 19.

During the Connect event, Meta unveiled an expanding roadmap for Muse that includes real-time video conversations with a personalized avatar, native support for macOS computers, a dedicated email address for the assistant, additional third-party integrations, and future compatibility with smart-glass hardware. These announcements aim to broaden the assistant’s utility beyond mobile chat and position it as a multi-modal productivity tool.

The surge in installations also reflects Meta’s strategy of promoting Muse to its existing Facebook and Instagram audiences, a tactic that previously helped Instagram Threads reach half a billion monthly active users. Connor Hayes, Meta’s Head of Threads, explained to Business Insider that Muse marketing differs because it showcases specific AI capabilities tailored to individual users rather than relying on generic content recommendations.

Sensor Tower also tracks daily active users for Muse, reporting a 27 percent jump on the Wednesday following the Connect keynote. The firm cautions that its install figures can trail real-world adoption, meaning the true scale of Muse’s audience may already exceed the publicly reported numbers, or at least approach the higher estimates from other analytics firms.

Sources

  1. Meta is putting its muscle behind Muse as the AI app takes off TechCrunch

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