Meta Platforms Inc. unveiled a palm-sized, dedicated gadget for using Muse, the company's popular new artificial intelligence assistant, pushing deeper into the AI devices market with a surprise announcement.
The product, unveiled on stage by Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, was born out of the company's new design lab led by former Apple Inc. interface design chief Alan Dye and its Superintelligence AI group.
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The device, called the Muse Charm, looks like a Tamagotchi — the digital pet from the '90s. It has a roughly 2-inch display and runs a new operating system designed to bring Muse to life on its own hardware.
The unveiling — made during Meta's Connect conference — comes just weeks after the Muse assistant launched on iPhones, Android devices and the web.
“It's cool, it's fun, it's neat, it's weird, it's different. There's nothing like it,” Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth said in an interview. He called the device an “exploration, the classic v0,” referring to the state of a product before a formal first-generation launch. “Let's see what people think,” he said. “Let's see how they use it. Let's see how it goes.”
Meta unveiled a variety of other devices during the Connect presentation, including lighter-weight virtual reality goggles and audio-only smart glasses that dispense with a camera. The company also touted the popularity of the Muse assistant and announced new partnerships with retailers. Muse will now more seamlessly connect to Walmart, Best Buy, Gap and other chains.
But the Charm product was the biggest surprise of the event. The novel device can be held in the center of a palm and navigated with a thumb on its OLED touch screen. That technology — short for organic light-emitting diode — is the same standard used in many smartphones.
An onboard 5G modem lets users access Muse models while away from Wi-Fi. The Charm includes other features commonly found in smartphones, though it doesn't make phone or video calls. It will rely on a fingerprint sensor to unlock the interface for users.
A virtual Muse character appears at the center of the screen, and users can customize its appearance, outfits, voice and other attributes. The device can be worn with a wrist strap, carried in a pocket or attached to a bag or keychain with a lanyard. A translucent case allows users to see the internal circuitry through the back and sides.
People with knowledge of the device, who declined to be named discussing the product, describe it as a “holdable” rather than a wearable. That means it's a small, dedicated device that people can pick up and talk to throughout the day.
Two users with Muse Charms can also allow their devices to recognize and interact with each other when they're placed nearby.
Zuckerberg showed off Muse Charm, without providing details, after saying during the Connect keynote that he was building something with Muse. The company originally aimed to bring the device to market in 2027, but Zuckerberg pushed the teams to unveil it in 2026 and place it on sale before the end of the year, said the people with knowledge of the matter.
Zuckerberg said during the presentation that the device would go on sale by December, in time for the holiday season.
The company hasn't decided how much it will charge for Muse Charm, Bosworth said, though the people familiar with the plans said it would be priced in the range of a smartwatch. Meta also hasn't finalized details such as cellular carrier fees for mobile network access.
Dye, the former Apple design executive, and Billy Sorrentino, one of his top deputies at the iPhone maker, were two of the driving forces behind the project and the creation of the Muse character-based interface, Bosworth said.
Meta recruited the executives at the end of 2025, forcing Apple to shake up its own design team to fill the void left by their absence. Dye and Sorrentino hired a slew of other designers from Apple as well, and they contributed to Muse Charm as well as the interface of its Muse smartphone apps, Bosworth said.
The company started looking at the Charm concept in March and said, “Hey, we'd like to launch something this year in hardware that doesn't exist yet,” according to Bosworth. “And they were pumped, man. They were game for it. That was something completely different for them, obviously, from a timeline perspective.”
The Charm has cameras on the front and back that can capture photos and video, though they are intended primarily to give Muse visual information for analysis and AI-assisted actions. Users can also view the photos and videos they have taken on the device. It supports music and video playback and includes speakers, microphones and a USB-C charging port.
Users set up and synchronize the Charm through the Muse app on either an iPhone or Android device.
The Charm initially emerged as a playful prototype before Zuckerberg pushed for its release. “Mark was like, ‘Yeah, we got to do a real program here. Let's get it together,'” Bosworth said. Internally, the team called it “Clawmagochi,” a reference to its Tamagotchi-like form and the developers' fascination with the OpenClaw AI assistant.
The Charm went from its initial vision to a finished product in about nine months and was developed in close coordination with the Muse team. “It's coming in fast — it's hardware that we literally designed and built in the same calendar year,” Bosworth said.
He cautioned that the device isn't the center of Meta's broader AI hardware strategy. The company expects substantially more people to use Muse through their phones and Meta's smart glasses than through a dedicated Charm.
“We're trying to thread a needle here, which is like, yeah, we're excited about it. We think it's cool. It's also not the core of the strategy,” Bosworth said. “Obviously, you expect more people to use Muse through their glasses and through their phone than through a dedicated charm device. But Muse has developed a pretty good set of hardcore fans already. So yeah, I think there's going to be an audience for it.”
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Bosworth wouldn't disclose sales projections for the Charm. “There's a lot of factors in terms of the volume,” he said. “One is obviously the sales side and what's the pull and what's the pricing. The other one is also the production side: what can we land and what's our confidence level and those kinds of things.”
The initial model is intended largely for Muse enthusiasts and will serve as a first run, the people said. The company is considering follow-up generations if the concept proves successful.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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