Meta to Launch Standalone Meta AI App Soon

Meta plans to add its artificial intelligence chatbot, Meta AI, to the list of standalone apps offered, including Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook.

The company aims to debut the app in the second quarter of the year. This decision aligns closely with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s plan for Meta to lead the artificial intelligence market by the end of 2025, ahead of strong competitors such as OpenAI and Alphabet. In order to achieve this, Zuckerberg is reportedly spending $65 billion to expand their AI infrastructure.   

Launched originally in September 2023, the Meta AI chatbot is capable of responding to user prompts and creating images for free. Furthermore, it replaced the search engine feature from all Meta apps (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger) in April 2024. To power these AI-driven capabilities efficiently, Meta has been investing heavily in AI chipsets, which are designed to enhance processing speeds and optimize large-scale machine learning models. These advancements ensure that Meta AI delivers faster, more responsive interactions while reducing reliance on external computing resources.

While the Meta AI is available through its website and the company apps, a separate mobile app would allow greater interactions for users. First proposed by a Thread user, who suggested that the app would enable users to organize conversational histories and benefit from more personalization and customization, Zuckerberg enthusiastically agreed in January, which was followed by the current announcement.

Currently, India forms the largest market for Meta AI, with nearly 700 million monthly active users across its platforms. But the AI website receives fewer than 10 million monthly views.

According to Meta finance chief Susan Li, the company is focused on providing a great customer experience via Meta AI, which holds clear monetization opportunities such as paid recommendations and premium offerings. In line with this, Meta plans to roll out a subscription-based service for the AI, similar to the offerings of OpenAI and Microsoft, which require a monthly payment for more premium versions of their respective chatbots.

This news follows the similar launch of Google’s Gemini app and xAI’s Grok app. While the Android version of the Gemini app was released in February 2024, followed by an iOS app in November, the company recently rescinded the users’ ability to access Gemini from the Google mobile app, directing them to instead download the Gemini app from the App Store.

Similarly, xAI launched the iOS version of Grok in January, expanding the service beyond the social media app, X. However, Android users must join a waiting list. Yet, by app downloads alone, ChatGPT dominates the AI digital app market, adding pressure on Meta to lead the race.