Meta’s Muse came out of the gate looking like a hit. A month later, the app is starting to look more like a movie with a huge opening weekend and a steep second-week drop.
From chart-topper to cooldown
Muse launched on September 8, 2026. Meta pitched it as a personal AI capable of carrying out tasks on its own, rather than simply answering questions.
The app pulled in over five million downloads in its first 22 days. That run pushed it to the top of the US app charts.
Average daily downloads fell to roughly 165,000 through October 7, an 8.1% decline from the prior week. Growth in daily active users slowed even more sharply.
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In mid-September, Muse was adding an average of approximately 198,000 daily users per day. By early October, that figure had shrunk to about 74,000, a 62.4% drop in net additions.
Total daily active users reached roughly 2.73 million on October 6. The figure trailed Threads at the same point in its life.
App reviews dropped 11.6% to 4,716 by October 7. Fewer reviews usually means fewer people are excited, or annoyed, enough to write anything at all.
A short seller enters the chat
On October 9, Hunterbrook Capital disclosed a short position in Meta Platforms. Hunterbrook pointed to Muse’s cooling momentum, the dip in downloads and the decline in app reviews over the same window.
Several headwinds have been cited for the slowdown. One is limited access from major platforms such as Amazon. User privacy and security concerns have also been flagged, as autonomous agents need deep access to accounts, apps and personal data to be useful.
Why Muse carries so much weight
Zuckerberg previously championed Muse as a core piece of the company’s future. A standalone chatbot that fades is a footnote. A flagship agent that fades invites questions about the broader strategy behind it.
What this means
The 62.4% slowdown in net daily user additions is the number to watch most closely. Downloads measure curiosity, while daily active users measure habit.
If major platforms like Amazon keep access limited, Muse’s usefulness as a task-completing agent stays capped. If privacy worries persist, Meta may need to offer clearer controls or guarantees before cautious users let an AI act on their behalf.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Diego Almada Lopez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.