AI Tamagotchi is the label reviewers gave Meta’s newest gadget, and on 25 September 2026 TechCrunch’s Equity podcast asked the obvious follow-up in its episode title: is the bet working? The early numbers suggest the software half is. Muse, the personal agent behind the device, has been the top free app on Apple’s US App Store since 18 September. Three market intelligence firms now put its downloads at between 2.3 million and 4.3 million in under three weeks.
The hardware half is a different matter. Muse Charm, the keychain device that carries a cartoon avatar of the agent, will not ship until December. Nobody outside Meta has lived with one, and Meta has not given a price. So any answer to “is Meta’s AI Tamagotchi bet working?” has to separate a strong app launch from a device nobody can buy yet.
This article does that. It sets out what the Equity episode covered, tests the download figures and the much-quoted ChatGPT comparison, and looks at what Meta’s own Threads launch says about early spikes. It also explains how Meta plans to make money and scores the bet against the evidence available today. TechCrunch has not published a transcript of the 33-minute episode, so this analysis works from the episode summary and the reporting it draws on. Our first look at Muse Charm covers the device itself in detail.
Table of contents
- What the Equity Episode Asked About Meta’s AI Tamagotchi
- The AI Tamagotchi Is Two Bets, Not One
- The Download Numbers Behind the AI Tamagotchi Hype
- Why the Comparison Flatters the AI Tamagotchi
- The Threads Precedent for Meta’s AI Tamagotchi
- What Muse Charm Adds to the AI Tamagotchi Bet
- How the AI Tamagotchi Could Make Money
- The Risks That Could Stop the AI Tamagotchi
- A Scorecard: Is the AI Tamagotchi Bet Working?
- What Meta’s AI Tamagotchi Means for Startups and Businesses
- Frequently Asked Questions About the AI Tamagotchi
- References
What the Equity Episode Asked About Meta's AI Tamagotchi
The episode, published at 9:00 a.m. Pacific time on 25 September and produced by Theresa Loconsolo, framed Meta as the surprise winner of a crowded week. Its title hedges twice, with an ellipsis and a question mark, and that caution is the right starting point for any AI Tamagotchi verdict.
Model drop week, and Meta stole the spotlight
The episode summary opens with the model race. When AI leaders at OpenAI and Anthropic “started talking about ‘pacing the frontier,’ maybe someone should have asked: what pace?” It notes that Anthropic released Opus 5.5 and OpenAI followed with GPT-6 model updates “just 90 minutes later.” Then comes the turn: “the company that stole the spotlight was Meta,” whose Muse agent “is reportedly outpacing ChatGPT’s early numbers and is headed for smart glasses and a tiny Tamagotchi-style device next.”
Who was talking, and what else they covered
Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha and Sean O’Kane discussed Meta’s consumer AI strategy and “what it means for the startups trying to build on top of this technology.” According to the summary, they covered where the money is flowing and which AI products “might actually become part of people’s daily lives.” The episode also took in a16z’s new school for aspiring founders and two AI and hardware deals, which fall outside this article.
Why the question mark matters
“Working” can mean several things: downloads, daily use, revenue, or a device that sells. The Equity framing leans on the first two, because those are the only numbers anyone outside Meta can see. The rest of this article takes each meaning in turn.
The AI Tamagotchi Is Two Bets, Not One
It helps to be clear about what the AI Tamagotchi bet actually is. Meta is making two related wagers, and they are at very different stages.
Bet one: the Muse agent
Muse launched on 8 September in the US on iOS, Android and the web at muse.ai, and it is now also available in Canada. Meta describes it as a personal AI agent that “doesn’t just answer questions, it actually does the work.” It connects to email, calendars and shopping services, runs on a dedicated cloud computer Meta calls Muse Secure VM, and checks with the user before sensitive actions such as sending an email or making a purchase. It is powered by Muse Spark, Meta’s model for agentic work.
Bet two: the Muse Charm device
Muse Charm is the physical AI Tamagotchi. Mark Zuckerberg revealed it as a “one more thing” at Meta Connect on 23 September. It is a palm-sized device for a pocket or keychain, with a small screen showing the agent’s avatar, known inside Meta as Jolly. “We packed the whole Muse experience, including the whole real-time voice and avatar stack, into something that fits on a keychain and is always available to talk to,” Zuckerberg said. His team still had to “finalize laying out the components,” and he promised the device would be “ready to ship in time for the holidays in December.”
Why the Tamagotchi comparison stuck
Bandai’s Tamagotchi sold about 40 million units in its first two years and more than 98 million by 2025. Its hook was attachment: a small character on a keychain screen that needed you. TechCrunch described Muse Charm as having “a quasi-Tamagotchi feel,” a “personality-filled device designed to keep users always connected to Meta’s software.” The difference is that this AI Tamagotchi is meant to work for you rather than the other way round.
The Download Numbers Behind the AI Tamagotchi Hype
The case that Meta’s AI Tamagotchi bet is working rests almost entirely on third-party app estimates. They are strong, but they disagree with each other more than the headlines suggest.
| Source | Measure | Muse figure | Reported |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apptopia | iOS downloads, US and Canada, first 12 days | 1.8 million (ChatGPT: 1.3 million) | 21 Sep |
| Apptopia | US mobile daily active users | 642,000 (ChatGPT at the same point: 231,000) | 21 Sep |
| Apptopia | Total installs, first 12 days | 2.8 million | 21 Sep |
| Sensor Tower | Total downloads | 3.4 million (up from 2.5 million earlier that week) | 25 Sep |
| Apptopia | Total downloads | 4.3 million, 2.6 million of them on iOS | 25 Sep |
| Appfigures | Total installs | About 2.3 million, split almost evenly by platform | 25 Sep |
| App stores | Chart position | No. 1 on the US App Store from 18 Sep; No. 1 on Google Play from 19 Sep | 25 Sep |
Three firms, three answers
As of the same Thursday, Appfigures saw about 2.3 million installs, Sensor Tower 3.4 million and Apptopia 4.3 million. The highest estimate is 87% above the lowest. None of these firms has access to Meta’s internal data, and Meta has not published its own figures. Anyone quoting a single download number for the AI Tamagotchi’s app is quoting one model of the market, not a count.
The ChatGPT comparison, read carefully
The claim that Muse is “outpacing ChatGPT” comes from Apptopia. Because ChatGPT’s mobile app launched on iOS only and Muse launched only in the US and Canada, Apptopia compared iOS downloads in those two countries over each app’s first 12 days. Muse had 1.8 million to ChatGPT’s 1.3 million, about 38% more. On US daily active users the gap was wider: 642,000 against 231,000, or 2.8 times as many.
Momentum, not just volume
Sensor Tower’s figures point the same way. Between 8 and 17 September, Muse averaged 55% day-over-day growth in downloads, against 24% for ChatGPT in its first 10 days. Sensor Tower said download growth for Claude and Grok declined during their launches. After the Connect keynote, it saw Muse’s daily active users climb 27% in a single day.
Why the Comparison Flatters the AI Tamagotchi
The numbers are real signals, but the setting is very different from ChatGPT’s in 2023. Three factors make the AI Tamagotchi’s head start look larger than it is.
A different market
ChatGPT’s app arrived in May 2023, when most people had never used an AI assistant on a phone. Muse arrived in September 2026 into a market where they have. People no longer need to be taught what a chatbot is, so a new agent can grow faster from day one. That is an advantage for Muse, but it also means the comparison measures two different moments as much as two different products.
Distribution Meta already owns
Apptopia found that more than 95% of Muse’s users are also Facebook users and 63% use Instagram. Sensor Tower said Meta began running house ads for Muse on 9 September, a day after launch. Within 10 days, Muse had received the majority of Meta’s own promotional placements, ahead of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. By 22 September Muse ranked among the top 10 brands by advertising spend, with paid campaigns on Reddit, TikTok and YouTube as well.
TechCrunch added an important qualifier. Ads promoting the app “only account for 6% of the ad impressions from launch through September 19,” so paid marketing cannot explain the growth alone. Much of the AI Tamagotchi’s early growth still looks organic, helped along by Meta’s own apps.
Downloads are not usage
A download costs nothing. Daily use is the better test, and here Apptopia’s 642,000 US daily users are the most encouraging number in the set. Setting them against its 2.8 million installs across the US and Canada gives a rough ratio of 23%. Because the install figure includes Canada, the true US ratio is somewhat higher. Nobody has yet published 30-day retention, which is the number that will settle whether people keep using the app.
Third-party estimates, not Meta’s numbers
Apptopia says plainly that it provides estimates. TechCrunch put it fairly: even if the figures are only right in a “ballpark” sense, they suggest Muse could become Meta’s next major app. Meta has not shared its own early adoption figures.
The Threads Precedent for Meta's AI Tamagotchi
Meta has launched a record-breaking app before, and what happened next is the best guide to reading the AI Tamagotchi’s first three weeks.
A record launch that faded
Threads, Meta’s text-based rival to X, gained 30 million users in its first day in July 2023 and more than 100 million in five days. It was then the fastest-growing consumer app on record, beating ChatGPT. Then the curve bent. Third-party observers estimated that daily active users fell about 20% after those first five days and engagement roughly halved. Meta stopped disclosing user numbers once Threads passed about 105 million.
A slow rebuild that worked
Meta kept going. Threads had more than 175 million monthly users by July 2024, 275 million by November 2024, over 400 million by August 2025 and more than 500 million by June 2026. The launch spike did not predict the long-term result. Patient product work and steady promotion inside Instagram and Facebook did.
Why Muse needs a different playbook
Connor Hayes, who now runs Threads, told Business Insider that the Threads playbook does not transfer neatly. Threads grew by showing Instagram users posts they would like. “For something like Muse, the big challenge is: How do we use what we know about you and your interests and promote this app to you, without having a base of user-generated content that can kind of do that work for us?” Meta’s answer is promotions that show a specific task the agent could do for you. “The hook for Muse is a little bit further down the funnel,” Hayes said.
What Muse Charm Adds to the AI Tamagotchi Bet
If the app is the engine, the Charm is one more way to reach it. Its job in the AI Tamagotchi bet is to make the agent quicker to reach and easier to like.
A faster way in
Zuckerberg’s pitch was speed. “You just go ahead and tap here in the fingerprint sensor in the corner, and you can start talking without having to unlock a phone or open an app,” he said. “So if you’re not wearing glasses, this is going to be by far the fastest way to talk to your Muse and to show what’s going on around you.”
A face for the agent
The Charm’s screen shows Jolly, and Connect also introduced Muse Realtime Avatar, a model that lets users give their agent a face, body and voice and video chat with it. TechCrunch noted “a hint of Metaverse-ishness” in the idea. A friendly character is the whole point of an AI Tamagotchi: it turns software you instruct into a character you check on.
Many doors to the same agent
The Charm joins a growing list of ways to reach Muse. The table below shows each one and its status after Connect.
| Way to reach Muse | How you start it | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Muse app (iOS, Android, muse.ai) | Open the app and type or talk | Available in the US and Canada |
| Message Muse like a contact | Available | |
| Meta AI glasses | Wake word | “In the coming months” |
| Mac computer use | Delegate a task; Muse operates desktop apps | Mac app out since 18 September; more detail at Connect |
| Muse Charm | Tap the fingerprint sensor | Ships in December; no price yet |
Low stakes by design
TechCrunch called the Charm “a relatively low-stakes way for the social media giant to experiment with AI wearables while also offering yet another way to distribute its AI agent to the masses.” That framing matters for any verdict. The Charm does not have to become a hit for the AI Tamagotchi bet to pay off. It has to make Muse a habit for the people who buy it.
How the AI Tamagotchi Could Make Money
A free app with millions of downloads is only a business once it earns something. Meta has said how it expects Muse to pay its way, and it looks less like a gadget business than a payments business.
Free tokens, then transaction fees
“We’re standing behind this by making Muse free for a huge number of tokens, with the expectation that over time we will profit by taking a small fee from transactions,” Zuckerberg said at Connect. Meta’s launch post adds that Muse is “free for most of what people need, with subscription plans for people who want to do more.”
The commerce partners
Checkout runs through Link, built by Stripe, and Meta says Muse is the first AI agent covered by Link’s purchase protections. Alexandr Wang, Meta’s chief AI officer, said Muse can reach the whole Shopify catalogue and pay with Shop Pay and PayPal. New retail partners include Best Buy, Gap, Sephora, Walmart and Wayfair, plus Expedia and, soon, Instacart. Meta opened its platform to third-party connectors and received more than 1,500 applications in less than a week, Wang said.
What early users say they bought
Business Insider collected early examples from posts on X. Entrepreneur Joe Devoy said Muse found a car insurance policy with identical cover, bought it and cancelled his old one in about five minutes, saving him $3,500 a year. Another user said it found a jacket, applied live discount codes and bought it at the lowest price. Not every report was positive: one user found Muse could see only the first frame of a saved Instagram workout video. These are individual claims, not audited results, but they show the kind of transactions Meta hopes to take a fee from.
The hardware as a funnel
Seen this way, the AI Tamagotchi device is not the profit centre. A keychain that makes it easier to ask Muse to buy something is a funnel for transaction fees. That is why a modest Charm price, if Meta chooses one, would make commercial sense.
The Risks That Could Stop the AI Tamagotchi
Strong launches can still stall. Three risks stand out for Meta’s AI Tamagotchi.
Security has already been tested
An agent that can read email and spend money is a valuable target, which makes this a cybersecurity question before it is a product one. Muse needed an urgent fix for a Mac app flaw within two weeks of launch, as we reported in Meta’s Muse AI Assistant Rolled Out With a Serious Security Flaw. On 25 September The Information reported a second vulnerability, found through Meta’s bug bounty programme, and Meta added a clearer safety warning, covered in Meta Bolsters Muse Safety Warning After Security Vulnerability Found.
Attachment cuts both ways
A virtual pet is designed to make you care about it. Coverage of the Charm launch, including People’s report of “growing concerns over the technology,” shows that some readers find an AI Tamagotchi from a social media company more unsettling than cute. Meta says Muse does not share conversations or VM data with its ad systems, that users can opt out of training, and that a Muse Confidential VM with user-held keys is coming later this year.
The gadget graveyard
AI hardware has a poor record. Humane’s $699 AI Pin was shut down after HP bought the company’s assets for $116 million in February 2025. Rabbit’s $199 R1 disappointed, and Rabbit has since moved its agent to phones and desktops, as covered in Rabbit OS3: A Powerful AI Agent App With No Monthly Fee. Meta’s advantage is that the Charm launches on top of an app millions of people already use, which neither of those devices had.
A Scorecard: Is the AI Tamagotchi Bet Working?
Putting the evidence together gives a mixed but mostly positive picture. The scorecard below rates each meaning of “working” on what is known today.
| Question | Evidence so far | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Are people downloading Muse? | 2.3 to 4.3 million estimated downloads; No. 1 on the App Store and Google Play | Yes, early |
| Are they using it daily? | 642,000 US daily users (Apptopia); a 27% jump after Connect (Sensor Tower) | Promising, unproven |
| Is growth organic? | Ads were 6% of impressions to 19 Sep, but more than 95% of users are on Facebook | Mixed |
| Will people keep using it? | No 30-day retention data published | Unknown |
| Will the Charm sell? | Not shipped; no price, battery or spec sheet | Unknown |
| Does it make money? | Transaction-fee model announced; no revenue disclosed | Too early |
| Is it secure enough? | Two security fixes in the first three weeks | Open question |
The honest answer
The answer to the Equity question is “yes, so far, for the app.” The AI Tamagotchi as a device has not yet been tested, and Meta’s revenue model is still a plan. On Meta’s own Threads experience, the first three weeks will say little about the next three years.
What to watch next
Four signals will move the verdict. The first is retention: whether the daily user estimates hold once the Connect boost fades. The second is whether Meta publishes its own Muse numbers, most likely alongside its next quarterly results. The third is the Charm’s price and the first hands-on reviews before December. The fourth is expansion beyond the US and Canada, which will test the agent without Meta’s strongest home market behind it.
What Meta's AI Tamagotchi Means for Startups and Businesses
The Equity hosts focused on what Meta’s push means for companies building on the same technology. Whatever happens to the AI Tamagotchi as a device, a mass-market agent changes the ground for other businesses.
For startups building agents
A free agent with Meta’s distribution sets a high bar for any consumer start-up selling a similar product. Wang pitched the flip side at Connect, saying Meta’s new connector platform “could be a generational opportunity to start building for a new platform as it takes off.” For many start-ups, building a connector that Muse can call may now be easier than competing with Muse for users.
For retailers and service businesses
When customers delegate shopping to an agent, the agent reads your product data, prices and stock rather than your marketing. Accurate, machine-readable catalogues become part of how you get chosen. Some retailers will resist: Amazon has already barred Muse from shopping on its site, as we noted in our Muse Charm coverage. Each business will need to decide whether agent traffic is a channel or a threat.
For IT teams
Muse connects to work email and calendars as easily as personal ones. IT teams should decide now whether staff may connect company accounts, and treat agent access as a data flow that needs the same review as any other third-party integration. A device like the Charm, which starts a conversation with a fingerprint tap, adds one more endpoint to that policy.
Frequently Asked Questions About the AI Tamagotchi
What is Meta’s AI Tamagotchi?
It is the nickname for Muse Charm, a keychain-sized device Meta revealed on 23 September 2026. It shows an animated avatar of Meta’s Muse agent on a small screen and lets you talk to the agent after tapping a fingerprint sensor. More broadly, the AI Tamagotchi bet is Meta’s wager that a friendly, character-led agent becomes a daily habit.
Is Muse really more popular than ChatGPT was at launch?
On Apptopia’s estimates, yes. Muse had 1.8 million iOS downloads in the US and Canada in its first 12 days against ChatGPT’s 1.3 million, and 642,000 US daily users against 231,000. These are third-party estimates for a narrow slice of the market, and the two apps launched into very different conditions.
When can you buy Muse Charm?
Zuckerberg said it will be ready to ship in time for the December holidays. Meta has not announced a price, a battery life figure or which countries will get it first.
How does Meta plan to make money from Muse?
Zuckerberg said Muse will be free “for a huge number of tokens,” with Meta taking “a small fee from transactions” over time. Meta also offers subscription plans for heavier use.
Where is Muse available?
Muse is available in the US and Canada on iOS, Android and the web, and inside WhatsApp. Meta says glasses support is coming in the coming months, and the Charm arrives in December.
References
Meta’s AI Tamagotchi bet is…working? (TechCrunch Equity podcast)
Meta’s Muse is outpacing ChatGPT’s early mobile launch (TechCrunch)
Meta is putting its muscle behind Muse as the AI app takes off (TechCrunch)
Everything new coming to Meta’s AI agent Muse (TechCrunch)
Meta made a Tamagotchi-like wearable for its Muse AI agent (TechCrunch)
Introducing Muse: The World’s First Personal AI Agent Built for Everyone (Meta)
Meta’s Personal AI Agent Muse Soars to Top of App Store (Business Insider)
Meta’s Threads Chief Connor Hayes on AI, Growth, and Promoting Muse (Business Insider)
Threads reaches 500M monthly users (TechCrunch)
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