Meta's Muse AI App Reaches 10 Million US Downloads Amid Privacy Concerns

What is new

Meta’s AI companion app, Muse, has reached 10.9 million downloads since its debut in September, with 10.2 million of those occurring in the United States [1]. According to data from Sensor Tower, Muse is one of only 12 mobile apps to reach 10 million U.S. downloads within its first 40 days on the market [1]. Kara Lee, a senior insights analyst at Sensor Tower, noted that besides mobile games like Fortnite, PUBG Mobile, and Pokémon GO, the only other non-game app to reach this milestone was Meta’s Threads in July 2023 [1].

On October 16, Muse’s daily active users reached 2.5 million for the first time, representing a 15% week-over-week increase [1]. The app has maintained the No. 1 rank on the Google Play store for the last 30 days and has held the top spot on the U.S. App Store most days, briefly losing it to the streaming app Kick on October 19 [1].

In terms of user engagement, Muse reported a 30% retention rate after 7 days and a 23% retention rate after 14 days in the U.S. [1]. These figures are higher than competitors such as ChatGPT, which saw an average 19% 7-day retention rate and 16% 14-day retention rate, as well as Claude and Grok [1].

Limits, privacy and academic integrity

Meta has paused a feature that allows users to share Muse conversations via links [2]. This decision follows a report from the security firm Claroc, which found more than 6,800 Muse links through public DNS records [2]. Claroc researchers stated that Muse builds web addresses using the conversation’s title and a random ID, which allowed the hostname to reveal the content’s nature [2].

Through these public DNS records, researchers discovered hundreds of private conversations [2]. Examples of exposed data included:

• A marketing company’s revenue review [2]
• A small business owner’s loan application [2]
• A workplace’s full-year staff calendar [2]
• Notes regarding a job candidate’s call with an AI lab [2]

Muse spokesperson Tracy Clayton stated that the company has paused the functionality to review the report and consider changes to how these links can be discovered [2]. Currently, Muse is only available in the United States and Canada [1].