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Meta AI app climbs to No. 5 on the App Store after Muse Spark launch

Source: TechCrunchView Original
technologyApril 9, 2026

Meta’s AI app has seen a sizable jump in installs following Wednesday’s launch of the company’s newest AI model, Muse Spark — its first model release under Alexandr Wang, the head of Meta’s Superintelligence Labs who was recruited from Scale AI last year to overhaul the social giant’s AI efforts.

According to new data from market intelligence provider Appfigures, consumer demand for the Meta AI app has pushed the app up from No. 57 right before the launch of Muse Spark on Wednesday to No. 5 on the U.S App Store on Thursday — a move suggesting a flood of new installs.

Meta says its new AI model, which is available on both the web and mobile, is a significant upgrade over its earlier Llama 4 models. It’s also the company’s latest attempt to catch up to rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic, an effort that’s already cost Meta billions in recruiting AI talent, in addition to its $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI.

Currently, Muse Spark accepts multimodal input, including voice, text, and images, and has been designed to perform well on a number of tasks, like helping people learn about their health and reasoning through complex questions in areas like science and math. It can also aid in visual coding, letting users create websites and mini-games from prompts.

Plus, Meta AI is able to launch multiple subagents to handle users’ questions, the company said.

The model will roll out to other platforms, including WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, and Meta’s AI glasses, in the weeks ahead.

Alongside the model’s launch, the Meta AI mobile app and website were upgraded with a new look and feel and now allow users to switch between modes depending on the task.

Despite the recent growth, Meta AI’s app still lags behind the AI chatbots from other top model makers, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT (No. 1), Anthropic’s Claude (No. 2), and Google’s Gemini (No. 3).

Wang pointed to the new high rank in a post on X earlier Thursday, and he noted that the app is “still growing.”

> Meta AI is up to #6 in the App Store overnight, and still growing :)

Also who knew the 7-Eleven app was so popular pic.twitter.com/55JduZWsds

— Alexandr Wang (@alexandr_wang) April 9, 2026

Appfigures data indicates that Meta AI’s app has been installed a total of 60.5 million times worldwide across both the App Store and Google Play, with 25 million of those downloads occurring just this year.

Over the past five months, Meta AI app downloads have increased by 138% when compared with the first five months of the app’s availability.

India is now Meta AI’s top market by downloads, followed by the U.S., Brazil, Pakistan, and Mexico, according to Appfigures.

Image Credits:Appfigures (screenshot)

Topics

AI, Apps, Meta, meta ai, muse spark

Sarah Perez

Consumer News Editor

Sarah has worked as a reporter for TechCrunch since August 2011. She joined the company after having previously spent over three years at ReadWriteWeb. Prior to her work as a reporter, Sarah worked in I.T. across a number of industries, including banking, retail and software.

You can contact or verify outreach from Sarah by emailing sarahp@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at sarahperez.01 on Signal.

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Meta AI app climbs to No. 5 on the App Store after Muse Spark launch | TrendPulse