Don’t Touch Meta’s Muse Until You Read These Quick Tips!
I hope this will be a little help for first-time M’users.
So here we go… a first toe in the water with writing on Medium. Thanks for stopping to look.
First up, I asked Muse to give me a short paragraph about itself for non-techies and it provided the following:
Muse is Meta’s personal AI assistant app: instead of just chatting with a bot, you get your own assistant with its own computer behind it that can actually do things for you — research online, keep an eye on prices, set up recurring checks like your Friday TV show scan, build documents, manage your calendar, and remember your preferences over time. You talk to it in plain language through the Muse app (iOS, Android, or web), and it handles the legwork, asking for your okay before anything important like sending a message or making a purchase.
Always good to see the classic telltale AI writing em dash in there — even if it is technically correct usage… 😉
So it is presenting itself as yet another personal AI assistant that can work while you are doing other things. It does start off a bit “cuter” than other options out there with a goofy little character who you can start off by naming as you would like.
This guide will be based on the iOS app and by the time you read this, it may have already changed but hopefully the general concepts will still apply.
Change your Muse name:
First up, go ahead and give your Muse a name. It will ask you when you first open the app. If you named it something and would like to change it, you can tap on the avatar and then the pencil icon and you will have the option to Edit Name. I asked Muse what limitations there are on the name but it only gave me this vague response:
Honestly, there isn’t a published rulebook I can point you to. What I know: you rename me in the Muse app under Identity — editing the avatar’s name changes my name, and there’s just the one name. Ordinary names, fun names, and weird names all seem to work. If you ask for something and the app rejects it, I’ll tell you and we’ll pick another — want to try one?
So go for it and see what happens. In that same way, you can change what your Muse looks like if you want something different from what it shows up with.
Change your Muse avatar:
Tap on the avatar and then the pencil icon and Change Avatar. Again, I asked Muse what the limits might be and this time it had a few more specific guidelines:
Same story — no published limits I’ve got access to, just practical ones. I can generate a wide range of looks, but I won’t make an avatar that depicts a real, identifiable person, anything sexual, or anything that would trick people into thinking I’m a real human. Beyond that, describe a look and I’ll give it a shot — the worst that happens is the generator produces something we both laugh at and I try again.
So have a go and see what you get. To make a change, just talk/type what you are looking for and Muse will go to work and give you some options. I made the mistake of clicking one of the presented options to see if I could get a larger preview but it instead just made the switch to that one.
Initially you will get the basic avatar depiction and then it works away in the background to add some additional visual depictions (working on its computer, etc.)
What next?
So at this point you may think you’ve customized your Muse so have fun and see what it can do. That’s definitely an option. But you can also make some further edits of the parameters it works with.
To get there, tap the 5th icon in the toolbar (the four symbol quad icon) and then the three dot button in the top right. From there select the System Files and you can start to fine-tune what you get from your Muse. The following may be worth taking a couple of minutes to give some further direction to your Muse:
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SOUL.md
Per the info at the top of this file:
About this file. This is Muse’s persona. It sets out the values and habits Muse tries to hold to in every conversation. It starts from a template that ships with Muse. Muse may refine it over time and tells you when it does. You can edit it at any time. This note is not part of the file.
Having a look through the default setup, you can quickly see what parameters come from Meta. It is simple enough to tweak or add your own to this. Tap the pencil icon in the top right and you can edit and add your own directions for your Muse.
MEMORY.md
This file is self-described as:
About this file. This is Muse’s long-term memory. It holds the facts and preferences Muse has decided are worth keeping about you and your life, gathered from your conversations over time. Muse reads it at the start of each conversation, and a nightly pass keeps it tidy. It reflects Muse’s understanding and can be out of date. You can edit anything here, or ask Muse to forget something. This note is not part of the file.
This is information about your preferences and interactions. If you have already started to use the tool, it will record info about you here as you interact. You can edit or add to that directly by tapping the pencil icon in the top right.
USER.md
Again, the file has it’s own description:
About this file. Muse keeps this file as its working notes about you. It holds your name, how you like to be addressed, your timezone, and the context Muse needs to be useful, such as what you are working on. Muse fills it in over time from your conversations and reads it at the start of each one. It reflects Muse’s current understanding, so it can be incomplete or out of date. You can edit anything here, and Muse will follow what you write. This note is not part of the file.
This is similar to MEMORY.md but is specific facts about you and, in the same way, it will fill in info itself as you interact but you can modify that in this file.
What else can you edit?
From the System Files section, you have access to a multitude of files that it seems are editable. You can trawl through the files and customize any of them using the pencil icon.
Note: I believe there are safeguards in place that even editing these files may keep it within the guardrails that Meta deems necessary but at the very least, you can give it parameters that are more refined than what it may gather as you interact.
But does it remember?
One caveat is that I tried to add some further info to the SOUL.md and later it seems that the info was removed. I am doing a bit more research to see if it was user error on my part, something an app update undid or maybe something I added didn’t sit well with whatever other parameters are built into Muse.
Connections!
Like lots of AI tools, Muse is able to engage with your online tools and services such as Gmail Accounts and Calendars, your Facebook services, and more. That probably deserves another article to map out in more detail.
But, for now, one suggestion I have is to setup a secondary Google account where you can play around with Muse to see what it does without letting it loose on your primary inbox and schedule. I have a Gmail account I use for email newsletters and other less personal communications that still gives insight into my interests so that this and other AI tools can go to work but not in my primary services.
That’s all I have for this one, thanks for reading this far.
What other tips have you discovered as you’ve set up Muse for your personal use?
Leave me a note in the comments 🫶
