Meta’s standalone AI app surged to number five on Apple’s App Store chart this week following the launch of Muse Spark, the first model to emerge from the company’s newly formed Superintelligence Labs. The release sparked a wave of downloads and online engagement, with U.S. web traffic to Meta AI reaching an all-time high in a single day.
A New AI Engine for Meta’s Apps
Muse Spark is a multimodal model capable of processing and generating both text and images. It currently powers the standalone Meta AI app and website, with Meta confirming plans to roll it out across Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses in the coming weeks. The model is the inaugural release from Meta Superintelligence Labs, the AI division led by Alexandr Wang, recruited from Scale AI last year to overhaul the company’s AI efforts.
According to Meta’s official announcement, Muse Spark is “purpose-built for Meta’s products” and will “power a smarter and faster Meta AI.” The model supports step-by-step reasoning, multi-agent orchestration, and a feature called “Contemplating Mode,” which applies parallel reasoning for deeper problem-solving.
Building on Existing Instagram AI Tools
Instagram already offers AI-driven photo editing through a feature called Restyle, which lets users type text prompts to transform images — swapping backgrounds, altering outfits, or applying styles like watercolor and anime. Muse Spark’s multimodal capabilities are expected to extend these tools further, with richer image-to-image reasoning and faster response generation across the platform.
Market Response
The launch drove an 87 percent spike in U.S. iOS downloads for the Meta AI app on April 8, according to Sensor Tower data cited by TechCrunch. U.S. web visitors to Meta AI rose more than 570 percent compared to the prior 30-day average. Meta’s stock closed up 6.5 percent on the day of the announcement and continued climbing the following session. The company has said it hopes to open-source future versions of the Muse series, though Muse Spark itself remains proprietary and is currently available only in the United States.
