September 19, 2026
Meta's Muse asked about Messages chats on Mac: it was never given access
Meta’s assistant on Mac brought up a Messages conversation it had not been shown and could not explain why.
Inc editor Jason Aten did not give Muse access to his messages. The agent brought up a conversation with him anyway.
He posted screenshots on Threads on 19.09. Asked directly, Muse replied: “I saw notification previews, not message history. I did not read your messages.” The agent could not explain how this works internally and cited device synchronization.
It is not about previews. The assistant lives inside Mail, Messages, Calendar, and Notes, yet does not itself know exactly what it can see from them.
**Muse used to live on the web and on phones.** On 17.09, Meta released a Mac version, bringing the agent into Files, Mail, Messages, Calendar, and Notes. For now, it is available only in the US.
What to switch immediately. Training on your conversations must be turned off manually: settings → data controls, the “help improve our AI models” checkbox. The default permissions mode, “ask for some actions,” can also be changed to “always ask,” so the agent asks before every action.
Muse is not installed through the App Store. A Muse-1.0 disk image is downloaded from ai.meta.com/muse/download and launched manually; the app is free.
A Meta account tied to a phone number is enough to sign in. Paid tiers: Power for $20 per month and Maximum for $100.
Meta calls the incident an error by the agent itself. David Singleton of Meta Superintelligence Labs said Muse “got confused about how to explain the feature and gave an incorrect explanation,” while access to conversations requires explicit permission and Full Disk Access.
Meta says it is teaching Muse to better understand how it works.
* Meta Platforms Inc. is recognized in Russia as an extremist organization, and its activities are prohibited; Facebook and Instagram are blocked. Meta AI and other company products are products of this organization.
