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Oct 21, 2026
Muse’s 10 Million Users Give Meta Momentum, but Not Trust
Meta sees Muse’s rapid adoption as proof that a personal AI agent can become a major commerce and hardware business. But analysts argue that the more deeply the tool enters users’ finances, inboxes and calendars, the more Meta’s longstanding trust problem comes into view.
Muse’s sprint began with its September launch in the US and Canada. Within 40 days, the app reached 10.9 million downloads—10.2 million of them in the US—putting it among only a dozen apps to hit that mark so quickly. Sensor Tower attributed part of the rise to Meta’s vast distribution machine and a sharp advertising push: 39% of the company’s October ad spend went to Muse.1
The early numbers also suggested that the launch was more than a burst of curiosity. Muse reached 2.5 million daily active users on October 16, while its seven-day and 14-day retention rates outpaced those of ChatGPT, Claude and Grok in the US.1 Another Sensor Tower account likewise described the milestone as exceptional, saying only 12 apps had reached 10 million US downloads within 40 days and flagging Meta’s “sizable advertising push.”2
By Wednesday’s third-quarter earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg said more than 10 million people had set up a Muse agent. Shopping has become its clearest commercial signal: more than a quarter of users make purchases through the app, with an average transaction above $200, while others connect email and calendars for productivity tasks.3
Meta’s pitch is that this is the beginning of a much bigger business. Zuckerberg said Muse had reached “product-market fit,” and the company intends to keep the service free for most people while taking a cut of agent-assisted commerce, selling premium access and eventually linking users’ agents with businesses and one another.4 Muse is also due on Meta’s smart glasses next month, where Zuckerberg calls it “central to the business model.”3
Yet the commercial ambition depends on users handing Meta more intimate data. Forrester analyst Kate Winick called consumer trust the “biggest X-factor,” arguing that Muse becomes more useful as it knows more while “overall trust in Meta remains low.”3 Meta points to its Secure VM and a planned Confidential VM intended to keep even Meta from viewing user content.4 The test now is whether those safeguards can outrun the company’s reputation.