Meta on August 19 released a standalone desktop app for Meta AI on Mac, marking the chatbot's first dedicated home outside of mobile and web. The app — version 1.0 beta — weighs just 16MB and runs natively on Apple Silicon Macs with macOS 15 or later, using an AppKit and SwiftUI shell with WebKit for richer chat content. Unlike a repackaged iPad release or Electron wrapper, it's built specifically for the desktop.

The headline feature is Screen Sharing: users can attach another Mac window to a conversation, and with Screen Recording and Accessibility permissions, the app reads the window's visible text and captures a screenshot to provide context for follow-up questions. Meta describes this as context gathering rather than computer control — for now.

Other Mac-specific additions include Quick Invoke (Option-Space) to summon a compact Meta AI composer over any active window, and a dictation mode that lets users hold a keyboard shortcut and have their spoken words typed into any application — Mail, documents, code editors, anything. The Dock icon can also be hidden, leaving only the keyboard shortcut as the entry point.

The sidebar includes Media, Artifacts, scheduled tasks, conversation history, and an "About Me" personalization section. Users can switch among thinking modes, attach files, generate media, and create recurring briefings or reminders.

The Mac app is part of a rapid cadence of Meta AI releases this year. In April, Meta replaced Llama with Muse Spark as the underlying model. A May update expanded voice conversations and live camera-based assistance. July brought Muse-powered image generation across Meta AI, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Most recently, Meta launched Muse Code, a terminal-based AI coding agent for macOS and Linux.

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