Meta‘s AI assistant app Muse has been gaining traction, with Sensor Tower estimating 3.4 million downloads since its September 8 launch as of Thursday, up from 2.5 million at the start of the week. The firm notes install figures can lag real-world adoption, so the Meta Connect effect may not be fully captured. Other estimates vary: Apptopia puts lifetime downloads at 4.3 million (2.6 million on iOS), while Appfigures sees roughly 2.3 million as of Thursday, almost evenly split between iOS and Android. Muse is currently available only in the U.S. and Canada.

At Meta Connect, Meta announced upcoming features including video chat with the Muse avatar, computer use on the Mac, a dedicated email address, more partners and connectors, and smart glasses integrations. Sensor Tower‘s daily active user figure climbed 27% on Wednesday after the event wrapped. Before the conference, Muse had already reached 2.8 million downloads in its first two weeks, averaging 55% day-over-day download growth from September 8 to September 17. For comparison, ChatGPT averaged 24% day-over-day growth in its first 10 days, while Claude and Grok saw declining growth during their launches. On September 18, Muse reached the top of the U.S. App Store and has kept that ranking; it topped the Google Play Store the next day and remains there.

Much of Muse‘s traction is organic, but Meta is also benefiting from the same cross-platform promotion that helped Instagram Threads top 500 million monthly active users. Meta‘s Head of Threads, Connor Hayes, told Business Insider that Muse promotions are built differently: instead of user-generated content, Meta creates promotional units that demonstrate something the AI agent can do for a user based on what might be useful to them. Sensor Tower data shows Meta rolled out house ads for Muse on September 9, the day after launch, and within 10 days Muse received the majority of house advertising promotions across Meta‘s properties, ahead of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Meta has also advertised on mobile ad networks and social networks including Reddit, TikTok, and YouTube. By Tuesday, September 22, Muse ranked among the top 10 brands by advertising spend, according to Sensor Tower. Still, ads accounted for only 6% of the ad impressions from launch through September 19.