Meta's Muse AI Agent Gets Real-Time Voice Mode and Expressive Avatars, Tested on iOS

Meta has added real-time voice conversations to its Muse AI agent, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced it. It matters because you no longer have to type to Muse. You can just talk to it, and an animated avatar moves along with what it says.

The Verge's Jay Peters says the feature rolled out to him and he tested it on the iOS app. According to Meta, voice mode and the expressive avatars are rolling out now in the US for the app, with Meta's AI glasses and the Muse Charm gadget to follow.

What Muse voice mode does and how it works

The idea is simple. Instead of typing a question and reading the answer, you hold a spoken, back-and-forth conversation with your Muse agent in real time. It's the same agent you'd chat with in text, now with a voice.

That also means it behaves like the text version in some ways. In Peters' testing, Muse sometimes paused while it looked something up or checked a detail, just as it would when you ask a question in a text chat. We'll come back to how that felt in practice.

How the expressive avatar animates while Muse talks

The new avatar sits at the top of the conversation. While Muse is talking, it animates in time with the words the agent is saying, so you're watching a face that follows the speech rather than a static icon.

In Peters' testing, that worked as described. It's a small change on paper, but it makes a voice chat feel more like talking to someone than listening to a speaker.

Moving files and freeing space on your phone

Whenever you start leaning on a new AI app, or pick up a new phone to run it on, you tend to hit the same chores: moving your stuff across and making room for it. Smart Transfer is one option for that. It's a phone data management app for Android and iPhone, and its Clone tool handles Data transfer between Android and iOS devices, including phones and tablets. Pictures, videos, contacts, apps and more move over Wi-Fi, and messages come along too, so Sms Transfer is part of the same move and you don't start over.

For sending things to other people, its Share tool covers File Transfer: Share Nearby works with people on the same Wi-Fi, and Share Remotely sends files across networks, including to other countries. If you're after a data transfer app that also tidies up, its Storage tool finds large files, duplicates and unnecessary content, which makes it a data organiser app of sorts. Free up storage by sorting duplicates, similar and blurred images, screenshots, downloads and WhatsApp media into folders.

How to change Muse's voice tone and avatar settings

There are two ways to change how Muse sounds. You can tell the agent what kind of tone you want and let it decide how to deliver that, or you can browse the options yourself in the avatar settings.

The first is the more casual route, since you just describe what you're after. The second is handy if you'd rather pick from a list. Peters also set his avatar to look like Mark Zuckerberg, though he couldn't get his Muse agent's voice to sound exactly like Zuckerberg's.

Hands-on impressions: speed, pauses and the uncanny factor

Peters found that Muse answered quickly over voice. The occasional pause came when the agent was looking up information or checking something, the same as in a text chat. Those were brief tests, though, so treat them as a first impression rather than typical performance.

On the avatar, he called the speech animation good but somewhat uncanny. That's worth keeping in mind if you pick a realistic likeness. A face that moves convincingly with the words can feel a little strange, and how much that bothers you will come down to taste.

Availability: US rollout, Meta AI glasses and the Muse Charm

For now, Meta says voice mode and expressive avatars are rolling out in the US for the app. The source doesn't say anything about availability outside the US, so if you're elsewhere, it's best to wait for Meta to confirm.

Meta says the features are coming "soon" to its AI glasses, without giving a date. They'll also be available on the forthcoming Muse Charm gadget, which is supposed to ship this year. Both timings are soft, so don't plan around a specific day just yet.

Muse now talks back in real time, and the avatar moves with it. Early impressions are positive but based on short tests, and the wider rollout is still mostly a promise.