Meta Muse calls are now a thing: Meta’s AI assistant can phone a US business on your behalf, as part of an expanded test that started this week. That means the booking, the cancellation or the billing question you keep putting off could be handled by an AI voice while you do something else.
The Gist
- Meta widened the Muse test so the assistant can place outbound calls to businesses in the United States.
- People who ask Muse to make a call get the feature first, so asking is also how you request it.
- Rival assistant Instinct launched phone calls the same week, for jobs like restaurant bookings and cable bills.
- The feature raises a new everyday question: should the person answering know they are talking to an AI?
Have ChatGPT Recap This Article
ChatGPTMeet Meta Muse calls, the assistant that picks up the phone
What is Muse again? It is the app Meta launched in the United States on September 8, an assistant that does tasks for you instead of only answering questions. We covered its fast start when Meta Muse climbed to number two on the US App Store in two days.
Until now, Muse worked through screens. It could book travel, manage a calendar and pay for things online. Meta Muse calls add a voice, so the assistant can now reach businesses that only deal with customers over the phone.
The rollout is small on purpose. Meta expanded the test for outbound calls to US businesses and is giving priority to users who ask Muse to make a call. According to the Muse team, calling was one of the features people requested most.
“Outbound” simply means Muse dials out. It calls the business for you, as opposed to answering calls that come in, so this is about running your errands rather than acting as a receptionist.
How an AI phone call actually works, step by step
What happens when you ask? You type or say what you need, for example a table for four on Friday at a place that does not take online bookings. Muse works out which business to call, places the call and talks to whoever answers.
The voice on the line is generated by AI, which means software turns the assistant’s written reply into speech in real time. When the restaurant answers, it hears a voice asking for the booking, and the answer comes back to you as a message.
Why a phone call at all, in an age of apps? Because plenty of everyday services still run on the phone. Small restaurants, dentists and local shops often have no booking page, and that is exactly the gap these calls are aimed at.
Meta is not alone. The same week, Instinct, an assistant you text like a friend, launched a phone service called Concierge. Its founder Noah Shinn described it in his announcement on X as a way to book the restaurant that does not take online reservations, get on your dentist’s cancellation list or get a cable bill sorted out.
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What “agent” and “beta” mean in this story
You will see Muse called an agent. An agent is AI software that carries out a multi-step job for you, instead of handing you instructions to follow yourself. We explained the idea in more depth when Dawn Song joined Meta and called AI agents the next milestone.
A phone call is a big step up for an agent. Filling in a web form follows fixed boxes, while a real conversation can go anywhere: the restaurant is full, the dentist wants a date of birth, the cable company puts you on hold.
“Beta” means a test version. Meta is not switching calls on for everyone at once, which lets the company watch how the calls go before opening them wider. For you, it means the button may not show up yet, and the results may be uneven.
Zooming out, calling is becoming a standard feature. Instinct and Muse now sit level with smaller rivals such as Wajo, Town and Ollie, which already offered calls. Instinct also raised 350 million dollars at a 2.5 billion dollar valuation in August, a sign of how much money is betting on assistants that act for you. The technology underneath Muse goes back to Muse Spark, the Meta model trained to use your apps.
How to see AI phone calls in your own week
What changes for you? If you live in the United States and use Muse, the simplest step is to ask it to make a call. Since asking is how Meta prioritizes access, the request itself may be what gets you into the test.
Start with a call you could redo yourself if it goes wrong. Booking a table is a gentle first test. Anything involving money, like disputing a bill, is worth watching closely the first few times, because you are letting software speak for you.
Even outside the US, you will probably hear more about this soon, because it pushes a new question into the public conversation. When a business picks up and hears a natural voice asking for a booking, should it be told that no human is on the line?
The same question works in reverse. More businesses already answer with automated voices, and soon two pieces of software may be talking to each other to book your haircut, which is likely to shape how people discuss trust and honesty around AI in the months ahead.
For now, the practical lesson is simple. AI assistants are moving from typing answers to doing chores, and the phone call, one of the most human errands left, is the next one on their list.
Stay tuned on AI Noobies.
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