Dive into Meta's New Standalone AI App

Meta has launched a standalone app for its Meta AI assistant, marking an important step in bringing its generative AI tools beyond Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp users, all supported by the open-source Llama AI model.

The new Meta AI app arrives nearly two years after the company began its major AI integration push, which started in December 2023, embedding generative AI into its social media and communication platforms.

Meta is catching up with companies like OpenAI, Google, and Elon Musk's xAI, which have already released standalone apps for their AI models.

Despite having 7.5 billion monthly active users across its social media platforms, Meta still faces significant challenges if it wants to compete with rivals. ChatGPT alone has 600 million monthly active users across iOS, Android, and desktop apps.

I spent some time using the new Meta AI app, which is available on iOS, Android, and the web. It offers several impressive features such as high-definition image and video generation, customizable AI voices, and a Discover tab to see how others are using it.

There's also integration with Meta's smart glasses. However, despite these highlights, the app still has areas that need improvement.

First Impressions

In this review, I used the iOS version of the Meta AI app. It requires users to log in using their Facebook or Instagram account or an email address linked to another Meta account. Once logged in, the landing page provides tutorials on using AI, exploring features, and starting simple projects.

A new feature of Meta AI is the Discover tab, which displays content created by other users within the app. The Discover tab isn't just a gallery; it acts as a social media hub, allowing users to like, comment, and share AI-generated content to Meta platforms.

While I don’t mind sharing my creations online, I’m not fond of how Meta AI shares images without first obtaining explicit user consent. Users can disable sharing to Facebook and Instagram in the data and privacy settings, but it’s enabled by default.

Meta AI can create static images and short video clips, which is one of my favorite aspects of the app. Meta's Emu image generator excels at creating vivid high-definition images, which can be animated into clips by simply adding "video" to the prompt. The image generation speed is very fast.

I was surprised to find that the AI didn’t struggle much when creating images of Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and John Constantine.

Once created, these images can be shared along with their prompts in the Discover tab.

Meta AI controls also include a History tab that shows previously used prompts. Additionally, under Data and Privacy, users can make their prompts private or delete them in the "Manage Your Information" section.

The Meta AI app also connects to Meta’s AI-powered glasses, indicated by a glasses icon at the bottom of the screen. For Meta glasses owners, the app provides step-by-step instructions for device pairing.

"You’ll be able to use the app to manage your Meta glasses and other types of AI devices we’ll build in the future," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. "This is the beginning of a long journey to build all of this."

I’ll take Zuckerberg’s word for it. I don’t own a pair of Meta glasses, which start at $299, but if Meta would lend me a pair, I’d be happy to review their integration with Meta AI.

Voice Control

While on the surface, Meta AI resembles other large language models, what makes the app both intriguing and slightly unnerving is its voice AI functionality.

Once enabled, the "Ready to Chat" feature allows the mobile app to listen for commands while open. This is convenient until you realize that the app doesn