Meta Muse Charm revealed: Adorable AI Tamagotchi due in 2026
Meta unveiled the Meta Muse Charm, a Tamagotchi-like AI gadget built to hang from a keychain, at its annual Connect event on Wednesday, Sept. 23. The small device puts an animated Muse AI avatar on a screen and is expected to arrive in time for the 2026 holiday shopping season.
What the Meta Muse Charm is
The Charm shows a cute, squishy-looking Muse character on a 2-inch OLED touchscreen and is roughly the size of an AirPods case, according to Tom’s Guide. It also packs speakers, microphones, front and rear cameras, a fingerprint sensor and 5G, the outlet reported. CEO Mark Zuckerberg compared it to a keychain when he revealed it as a surprise “one more thing” at the end of his keynote, Gizmodo reported.
“We’ve packed a lot of technology into this little guy,” Zuckerberg said onstage, according to The Verge. “So, if you’re not wearing glasses, this is going to be by far the fastest way to talk to your Muse and to show it what’s going on around you.”
That pitch makes the Meta Muse Charm an entry point to Meta’s AI assistant for people who don’t want to wear Meta’s smart glasses.
What the Meta Muse Charm can do
Muse is Meta’s AI companion, and its app recently climbed to No. 1 among free apps on Apple’s App Store, ahead of ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude, Tom’s Guide reported. The Charm is designed as a pocket-size way to reach that assistant: Users wake it by tapping the fingerprint sensor on the screen.
Meta’s pitch for Muse covers everyday errands. According to Tom’s Guide, the assistant can send emails, book travel, organize tasks, turn recipes saved on Instagram into grocery lists and help plan a dinner party. With the Charm’s cameras, it is also meant to identify products and read signs in real time.
Muse connects to outside services including Gmail, Google Drive, Shopify, OpenTable, Ticketmaster and PayPal, the outlet reported. Meta also plans to bring the same assistant to its smart glasses lineup.
Not everyone is sold. Gizmodo’s James Pero, who attended Connect on a trip paid for by Meta, questioned whether the keychain will have “broad appeal” and wrote that Meta “isn’t exactly known for being responsible with its hardware pursuits.” He also noted the Charm comes with a lanyard, so it can be worn on a wrist or around the neck.
When it launches
Meta says it wants the Meta Muse Charm out for the holidays, and Tom’s Guide reports a December target. The company hasn’t announced a price, battery life or full specs.
OpenAI’s competing device
Meta isn’t the only company chasing AI-powered gadgets. OpenAI is also developing hardware, and at its DevDay event it introduced Dots, an AI agent platform whose avatars are customizable colored blobs with eyes. OpenAI’s device, designed with former Apple design chief Jony Ive, won’t ship before February 2027, according to a public filing cited by The Verge.
Asked whether Dots would eventually live inside a physical device, CEO Sam Altman said that “seems like a very reasonable thing to assume we may do someday,” but he didn’t elaborate.
Why hardware matters now
Dedicated AI gadgets have a rough track record. The Friend pendant and Humane’s AI Pin drew heavy criticism, The Verge noted. This time, both Meta and OpenAI are building familiarity with their AI characters in software first. The idea is that once people rely on, and maybe even grow fond of, those agents, they’ll be more willing to buy a device built around them.
Whether shoppers bite on the Meta Muse Charm this holiday season will be an early test of that strategy.
Reporting from The Verge, Tom’s Guide and Gizmodo contributed to this story.