Alexandr Wang announces Meta's Muse personal AI agent is launching in Japan, Meta's first region outside North America
konnichiwa! we are launching muse in japan today! 馃嚡馃嚨 it is now available鈥攄ownload it from your favorite app store! (i hope you're ready for the anime memes 馃槆)
Context
It is the first expansion beyond North America for Meta's agent product, and Meta describes its Japanese partner integrations as work in progress.
Alexandr Wang, whose profile lists him as chief AI officer at Meta, posted the launch, so this is a company announcement. Meta's Japan newsroom post, dated October 23 Japan time, says Japan is the first launch region outside North America, where Muse launched in September. It says Muse is available on iOS, Android and muse.ai. Meta says many basic features are free, with subscription plans for heavier use.
Deep dive
Alexandr Wang posted at 8:41 PM Eastern on October 22, which is the morning of October 23 in Japan, that Muse is launching in Japan and is available in app stores, adding a joke about anime memes. The attached six second clip shows instant photo prints of a character in Japanese scenes.
Meta's Japan newsroom post says Muse is designed to be used like messaging another person. Meta says it plans and carries out tasks such as sending email and booking travel, can open a browser and fill in forms, keeps working after the app is closed, and notifies users when approval is needed, for example before sending an email or making a purchase. It also says Muse remembers things that matter to the user.
Meta lists connectors for Gmail, Google Calendar, Instagram, Stripe, Shopify, Trip.com, Agoda and Klook. For Japan it says it is advancing integrations with Mercari, Money Forward ME and Ticket Pia; the page does not say whether they are live.
On safety, Meta says Muse runs on an isolated virtual machine called Muse Secure VM per user, that a separate Sentinel agent manages internet access, that Muse cannot see passwords or payment methods, and that it asks before key actions. Meta also says users can opt out of having chats used for training and that data is not shared with Meta's ad systems. These are Meta's own descriptions.
What to expect next
Meta says newer Muse features shown at Meta Connect, including an advanced voice mode, Muse Realtime Avatar in English only, and a Muse email address, will have their Japan availability announced separately. The Mercari, Money Forward ME and Ticket Pia integrations are described as being advanced, with no dates or live status given. Pricing for the paid plans in Japan was not stated in the sources reviewed. Independent testing of the safety claims was not found.