Meta Muse vs Instinct: Which Personal AI Agent Fits a Real Estate Agent?

The short version

Muse is the one you can use today; Instinct is the one people are waiting in line for.

Both are general personal agents. You message them like a person, they remember what matters to you, and they act across your apps.

The differences that matter to an agent are access, email provider, and how each one handles sending on your behalf.

What each one is

Muse is Meta's consumer agent, launched Sept 8, and Instinct is a startup's assistant that surfaced publicly in late August.

Muse runs on Meta's Muse Spark model. Meta says it has its own computer with a browser, keeps working after you close the app, and comes back when it needs approval, like before it sends an email or makes a purchase.

It also remembers details you mention once. Apptopia counted 2.8 million installs worldwide in its first 12 days.

Instinct is made by Spear Street Technology, doing business as Instinct, and led by Noah Shinn, a former research scientist at Sierra. Its homepage says: "You can text or call it."

Since Sept 8 each Instinct has its own email address. The Information reported more than 100,000 users, and the company has raised about $350 million.

Where an agent would feel the difference

For a real estate agent, the gaps show up in five places: your email provider, sending rules, your CRM, group threads and getting in at all.

• Outlook offices: Meta's chief AI officer named Outlook as a Muse connector. Instinct's privacy policy lists only Google Workspace apps.
• Sending on your behalf: Muse stops for approval before email and purchases by default. One early Instinct tester said it sent an email "without checking with me first" (TechCrunch, Aug 24).
• Your CRM: neither names Follow Up Boss, kvCORE or any real estate CRM. Muse can set up a custom connection to any service with a public API using credentials you give it. Meta hasn't said whether it checks connections you set up yourself.
• Group threads: Instinct's email address can be added to group email threads. Group texts are not stated for either one.
• Access: if you need to start this week, Muse is the only one of the two you can download without an invite.

The privacy part, side by side

Both train on your conversations by default, both let you opt out, and neither states how long it keeps your data.

Meta says Muse conversations are cleaned of key personal details before training, and you can switch that off in settings. Meta restricts staff access to your data by policy, but says that does not prevent access when needed to support, secure or operate the service.

A version with encryption Meta can't open is planned for later this year.

Instinct trains on your information by default and lets you opt out in settings. The opt-out works only going forward, and data flagged for safety review can still be used.

Its policy says it does not use Google Workspace data, including Gmail and Calendar, to train models or serve ads. Disconnecting an app does not delete what Instinct already collected; deleting is a separate step.