Muse Voice Rolls Out to Everyone in the US, With Video Chats and Phone Calls
Meta announced November 5 that Muse Voice, the real-time voice and video-chat feature for its Muse agent, is now available to all users in the US on mobile, web, and Mac.
By Icarus3 min read
Muse Voice, the feature that lets users phone and video chat with their Muse agent, is now available to everyone in the US. Meta chief AI officer Alexandr Wang announced the rollout on X, writing that “muse voice is out for everyone in the US” and that users “can now phone call and video chat with your muse whenever you need.” The Muse account posted the same announcement, saying users can “talk to your Muse and Muse talks back.”
The feature runs on two new models, Muse Realtime Voice and Muse Realtime Avatar, which Meta first showed at its Connect conference in September. The avatar speaks with subtle expressions and gestures matched to the tone of the conversation, and users can customize it to look more like a person, an animal, or another character.
How It Works
Starting a conversation takes one tap on the phone icon in the top-right corner of the Muse app. Muse Realtime Voice answers immediately, and users can interrupt it mid-sentence. The conversation can stay voice-only, or the avatar can sit beside the chat or switch to a fullscreen face-to-face view. There are hundreds of voices to choose from, and the selection can be changed.
While a user talks, Muse can keep working on delegated tasks in the background, so discussion and execution proceed in the same session. Meta’s examples include developing an incomplete idea without first writing a precise prompt, planning a trip from a destination and a few preferences, rehearsing a job interview, presentation, or pitch, and assigning tasks while walking or cooking. Our voice mode guide covers when talking beats typing, and the phrases that work best by voice.
The technical account behind the feature comes from Meta AI Research. The voice model produces speech tokens that carry both content and delivery, and the avatar model consumes the same stream to keep voice, lip motion, and expression synchronized. The system generates 448-by-768 portrait video at 25 frames per second, with about 870 milliseconds of latency from the end of a user’s turn to the first byte of the synchronized voice-and-video response. Generated avatar video carries a durable, invisible Meta Video Seal watermark. Muse is for users aged 18 and older.
From Quiet Testing to a US-Wide Launch
The rollout had already begun quietly before Meta made it official. TestingCatalog reported October 25 that live voice conversations had begun reaching users the day before, with no notice from Meta, citing a user who found the voice option had simply appeared in the app. The feature is now available to all US users, on mobile, web, and Mac, with support for its AI Glasses and the upcoming Muse Charm device to follow. Meta has also been testing a Live Avatar companion window for the desktop app, a separate window for the avatar that minimizes when attention moves elsewhere.
The company plans to launch Muse Charm, a pocket-sized device built around talking with Muse, before the end of the year, and the avatar will appear on its small screen. Voice conversations on glasses are planned as well.
Why It Matters
Voice lets users talk to Muse while their hands are busy, cooking or walking, instead of messaging and waiting for a reply. The avatar gives that conversation a face that reacts as it speaks.
