At Meta Connect 2026 the company showed Muse, its new AI assistant, and new lightweight AR/VR glasses. Muse is positioned as a practical agent that completes everyday digital chores and is being woven into Meta’s apps and hardware; it may have platform potential, but major questions remain.
Muse is an agent focused on doing real tasks people already have — booking, shopping, email chores — and Meta is integrating it into apps and glasses.
Meta’s new lightweight glasses impressed reviewers in hands‑on demos: the device felt physically unobtrusive and enabled immersive uses like virtual monitors and 3D video.
Meta has distribution advantages across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, but converting that into a true platform with daily, habitual use will take time.
# What happened at Connect
Meta used its Connect 2026 event to put Muse — its personal AI assistant — at the center of a broader product story. The company showed how Muse can live on phones and in glasses, handle routine digital tasks, and connect to services for things like booking travel or ordering groceries. Reporters who tried the new AR/VR glasses found the hardware lightweight and less intrusive than earlier headsets.
# How Muse works in practice
Muse is positioned as an agent that completes chores users already have. Examples described by attendees include placing holds on library books, sending ebooks to a Kindle, booking travel, filling forms, responding to email threads, and continuing work after the app is closed. The experience, according to people who tried it, often feels closer to an assistant than a chatbot because Muse performs actions across services rather than only returning text responses.
# The glasses: lightweight, immersive, pricey
Meta previewed a pair of lightweight VR/AR glasses that will ship in spring 2027 at about $1,300. Hands‑on impressions emphasized the glasses' low weight—around 100 grams—and an experience that lets users forget the hardware after a few minutes. Demos included watching 3D movies, playing Beat Saber, and pairing the glasses with a laptop to create multiple large virtual monitors. The glasses are meant to be a platform for Muse as much as an entertainment device.
The metaverse pitch previously centered on an unfamiliar, immersive world that required users to change how they interact with devices. Muse takes the opposite approach: it addresses tasks users already do and removes friction by acting on their behalf. It lives on phones today and is expanding into glasses and other Meta products. That fit with existing behavior — asking for help with everyday tasks — makes Muse feel more concrete than earlier metaverse visions.
# Platform potential and limits
# Open questions to watch
Several practical questions matter next: how reliably Muse completes multi‑step tasks in the real world, whether the glasses' hands‑free features work robustly outside demos, how Meta handles privacy and data access when Muse acts across services, and whether consumers will adopt an agent they trust with ongoing control of aspects of their digital life.
# Bottom line
They're a notable improvement over the company's earlier attempts at digital likeness.
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