Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday unveiled hardware built for talking to its AI agent Muse.
The Muse Charm, shown at the end of this week's Connect keynote, is a keychain-sized, Tamagotchi-style device with a small screen that shows an animated avatar of the Muse assistant. In a demonstration during the event, Zuckerberg showed that you can tap a fingerprint sensor to start a conversation with it.
Zuckerberg called it a "joyful little device." Meta's Alexandr Wang, the mind behind Muse, said in a post on X that the company aims to ship in time for the holidays in December, but the design isn't final, only a few units exist as of now, and pricing is yet to be decided.
This is a different bet from Meta's Ray-Ban glasses with AI features embedded. The Charm has no other job. It's a physical home for the assistant.
Following OpenAI
Meta's Charm comes months after reports emerged that OpenAI is also building hardware with designer Jony Ive. The ChatGPT maker acquired Ive’s startup io in 2025.
The Information reported that the device will be a screenless, puck-shaped smart speaker for the home, possibly priced at $300 to $400 and expected in 2027.
Both companies are making the bet that AI should bypass smartphones and have its own device, but this idea has a poor track record. Humane's AI Pin arrived in 2024 to harsh reviews and was later wound down after HP bought its assets. The Rabbit R1 launched the same year and drew similar criticism, as per reports.
Muse breaks record
Meta has an advantage which can help it scale this bet. Muse is already a hit. The app launched on September 8 and, according to Sensor Tower, overtook ChatGPT as the top free iOS app in the US, with about 730,000 downloads in roughly five days.
The agent has added nearly a billion dollars to Meta's market cap in just a few days, and Muse announced a slew of partnerships through social media with various companies in the past 24 hours to drive its agentic services.
Other announcements at Connect
Meta announced an audio version of its smart glasses. The new product will let users listen to music, make calls and talk with an AI assistant — there's just no screen, and no video recording, which had raised privacy concerns with some users recording people without permission. Called Ray-Ban Meta Audio, it will be available in October and the cost starts at $349.
The most drastic update announced at the conference is to the company's VR device, now called Meta VR Glasses. That is because the previous bulky headset has been replaced by a set of glasses, which weigh about 100 grams (3.5 ounces), or roughly as much as a deck of cards. In comparison, the Meta Quest 3, which launched in 2023, weighs about five times that much, according to executive presentations during the Connect conference.
Zuckerberg has long said he believes wearable AI will eventually replace smartphones as the primary way people interact with technology. At the conference, the company unveiled a slew of updates to its smart glasses and virtual reality goggles, which let people control their interface using their voice, eyes, and hand and finger movements.
.png?w=600)
