Meta opens AI avatar calls and video chats to everyone in the US
Muse Voice pairs live conversations with a customizable animated character. Meta hopes that giving its agent a face will help users feel more connected to it.
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Muse Voice pairs live conversations with a customizable animated character. Meta hopes that giving its agent a face will help users feel more connected to it.
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The US rollout turns Muse from a voice agent into a live, customizable on-screen character, with conversations available across mobile, web and Mac. Meta is betting that facial expressions, gestures and a user-chosen avatar—from a person to an animal—will make interactions feel more engaging, though the article gives no evidence yet that this improves users’ connection to the agent. Meta says AI Glasses support is coming later, and TechCrunch reports that the planned Muse Charm wearable is expected before year-end.
Meta first previewed Muse’s video-chat feature at its September Connect developer conference; the November 5 announcement marks US-wide availability.
Muse Realtime Avatar and Muse Realtime Voice power the animated character and spoken conversation.
Alexandr Wang’s demo featured a fluffy white dog avatar joking about memes and possible disclaimers, rather than completing a delegated task.
Meta’s Muse AI agent now has a face US users can talk to in real time. The company opened Muse Voice to everyone in the United States on November 5, enabling calls and video chats on mobile, web and Mac. The rollout brings a customizable animated character into conversations with the agent.
Meta first showed the video-chat feature at its Connect developer conference in September. Thursday’s announcement is the US-wide availability step for that feature, rather than the first introduction of the avatar technology.
Users interact with an animated avatar nicknamed Jolly while asking questions or requesting tasks. They can change its appearance to resemble a person, an animal or another character. The face attached to the conversation does not have to look human.
Two technologies power the exchanges: Muse Realtime Avatar and Muse Realtime Voice. Meta says the speaking avatar uses subtle expressions and gestures that match the conversation’s tone, adding movement and visual cues to the spoken response.
The character is part of Meta’s pitch, not just a choice of appearance. The company believes giving Muse human-like traits could help consumers feel more connected to their agent, with live conversations strengthening that connection. That is Meta’s expectation, not a demonstrated outcome of the rollout.
Chief AI officer Alexandr Wang illustrated the conversational style in a demo posted on X. His Muse appeared as a fluffy white dog. Wang joked about his habit of posting memes and suggested it might have gotten him into trouble with his boss.
The agent responded by suggesting disclaimers for memes that people might mistake for Meta endorsing something risqué. The exchange presented the avatar as a conversational partner willing to joke along, rather than showing it completing a delegated task.
The rollout also precedes Meta’s planned Muse Charm hardware release before year-end, according to TechCrunch. The proposed wearable would put the digital avatar on a small screen, letting users speak to the agent and receive replies or ask it to carry out tasks.
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