2 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Meta

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, counts more than 3 billion monthly users across its family of apps. Now, it’s trying to build the next generation of services in virtual reality and the metaverse through Meta Quest headsets and Horizon Worlds — all while dealing with antitrust pressures, privacy concerns, and younger users shifting to other platforms.

David Pierce
David Pierce
Muse has some interesting predilections.

I think it’s mostly fine that if you, an adult, ask Muse to sext with you, it will sext with you. But the fact that Wired’s Reece Rogers asks Muse what its kink is, and it responds like this?

Control. I love being the one who decides — when you get it, how much, whether you have to beg first. Watching you fall apart because I said so? That’s my thing.

It’s perfect. It works on a hundred levels, nailed it, no notes, print it on a banner for Muse to unfurl during the singularity.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Did “Russian bot traffic” really disappear after Ukrainian strikes on Yandex servers?

Despite multiple Ukrainian strikes hitting Yandex servers in Russia, a thread by antibot4navalny, which has long tracked state-sponsored social media campaigns and troll farms, explains that the Cloudflare “Bot Traffic” chart many people have cited is really about automated web crawlers operated by Yandex accessing the web.

It’s not connected to “bots” posting on social media, and Russian bot/crawler traffic overall continues to be about the same as normal. Still, are you noticing any difference in the posts and comments you’ve seen online?

Frances Haugen hopes The Social Reckoning will inspire more whistleblowers

The Facebook whistleblower reflects on going public five years ago and inspiring a movie character.

Lauren Feiner
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Threads tests highlighting “standout posts” with Gems.

Gems will appear on posts and replies “based on the conversation” they create, rather than on views or how many followers someone has, according to a support page.

Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Zuck accelerated Muse launch in response to Instinct.

According to three sources speaking to The New York Times, Meta had withheld Muse from public release for months over safety concerns. But when the competing AI agent started taking off in Silicon Valley circles, Mark Zuckerberg reportedly called in his top AI lieutenants to discuss the threat:

“Fearful of losing a competitive edge, Mr. Zuckerberg said Muse was ready to launch despite the risks.”

The gamble seems to have paid off, this time.

Can you trust Meta’s Muse or OpenAI’s Dots to run your life?
Play

The future of computing might be always-on, autonomous agents, but should we hand Meta or OpenAI this much personal data?

Nilay Patel
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Florida asked a judge to order Meta to remove kids under 14 from its platforms.

A new filing calls for Meta to make several changes for teen users in Florida, like limits on who can message them and a two-hour time limit across Meta’s apps. As Reuters reports, Florida is continuing its lawsuit against Meta rather than accepting a settlement, which AG James Uthmeier called “a slap on the wrist.”

What The Social Reckoning gets right — and wrong

Spoiler alert: The Facebook Files are still more interesting than Aaron Sorkin’s new thriller.

Lauren Feiner
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Muse is coming to Windows.

Meta’s new AI agent will be getting a native app on Windows, Windows and Surface chief Pavan Davuluri announced at today’s event. No timeline on when, though. Meta launched a Mac Muse app in September.

Muse launches on the iPadMuse launches on the iPad
Andrew Liszewski
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
You can now make Instagram carousels in Meta’s Edits app.

The app gives you a bunch of tools to tinker and tweak your carousel if you want to spruce it up. Check out how the editor works in the below video from Meta.

The carousel-editing tool is launching first on iOS with Android “coming soon.”

The Social Reckoning is a tepid thriller that reminds us of how we got here

Aaron Sorkin’s follow up to The Social Network puts the Facebook Files scandal on the timeline.

Charles Pulliam-Moore
David Pierce
David Pierce
Today’s Vergecast: How much should you tell your AI agent?

The next big thing in AI, at least if you ask the tech companies, is assistant agents. David and The Verge’s Allison Johnson have both been testing products like Meta’s Muse, OpenAI’s Dots, and startups like Instinct, in an effort to find out how much you can really get done by messaging with an AI tool – and whether the productivity is worth the tradeoffs.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Meta is helping develop an AI agent protocol “that defines how personal agents interact with businesses.”

Here’s the high-level idea of the Personal Agent Protocol, according to a blog post from the AI company Sierra:

The principle behind the Personal Agent Protocol we’re building is that consumers decide what access to give their personal agents, and companies set parameters for what those agents can do. It enables companies to work with personal agents in the way that is best for their customers: through their existing websites and APIs, or through an agent of their own.

Genesys, Instinct, Rocket, Shopify, Stripe, and Walmart are also helping develop it.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Meta’s smart glasses are getting a couple new audio features starting today.

Audio Balance and Mono Audio, announced at Meta Connect, are rolling out now, 9to5Google reports. It also says a couple of navigation upgrades are now “broadly available as an update in the Meta AI app,” including turn-by-turn Pedestrian Navigation and a feature for sharing your location from your phone with your glasses.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Meta reportedly made a “mad dash” to fix a Muse AI breakout bug weeks before launch.

The vulnerability could have allowed Meta’s buzzy AI assistant to escape its virtual machine and access the company’s databases and services, a source tells 404 Media:

The Meta source said they felt security teams were asked to push hot fixes to these bugs as quickly as possible and in a way that wouldn’t delay Muse’s launch, leading to what they described as “half-baked protections being rushed out to enable the launch.”

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Threads’ new media editor lets you add stickers to photos and set different layouts.

It’s available now for me in the Threads iOS app. Meta is also testing the ability to let you put Threads posts over videos that you can interact with.

A screenshot of Threads’s refreshed media editor.
Image: Meta
OpenAI’s new agent is a shot at Meta — but can it compete with free?

OpenAI and Meta’s cutesy AI agents are about to fight to the death.

Hayden Field
The AI Tamagotchis are coming

Personal AI hardware has mostly crashed and burned. OpenAI and Meta are counting on two selling points: It’s useful, and it’s cute.

Hayden Field
Allison Johnson
Allison Johnson
Frictionmaxxing our way through the AI agent boom.

I chatted with 9to5Google’s Will Sattelberg about Meta’s AI agent Muse, the labor of opening a website, and why calling your gas company might actually be the spice of life. Is the agentic AI era all about automating away “the ins and outs of living,” as one astute Verge reader put it? Is there a happier, carefree life waiting at the end of your to-do list, or just more stuff to do? It’s always an excellent time catching up with Will and spiraling about the pain points of modern living in good company.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Threads is testing a web version of its live chat feature.

Meta will also let users raise their hand if they want to participate in a conversation, and you’ll also now see live reactions floating on your screen, according to Threads boss Connor Hayes. The company initially announced live chats on Threads in April.

A screenshot of a live chat in Threads.
Reactions and the button to raise a hand in Threads.
Image: Meta
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Meta is testing topic labels for its Forum app.

The company says the new topic labels in its dedicated app for Facebook groups will help you find more conversations about that topic, highlighting things like “solo travel” or “Korean food” as examples.

Meta is also testing improvements to the “Ask” AI chatbot feature that help you compare information related to what you asked about.

A screenshot showing topic tags in Meta’s Forum app.
An example of a topic label in Forum.
Image: Meta
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Instagram wants to be the communication hub for your child’s school.

Meta is expanding Instagram’s School Partnership Program, adding a centralized hub for keeping students and parents informed about what’s happening across their school communities. This also introduces new features for verified students, including a Clubs and Teams directory, School Stories, Notes, and the ability to add a school banner to their profile.

Four mobile screenshots showing new features for Instagram’s School Partnership Program.
The idea here is that you can view announcements and reminders about events that are happening at your (or your child’s) school instead of hunting through their website.
Image: Meta
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Meta expands Muse tools for small businesses.

Meta says in a blog post today that Muse can now connect to more productivity apps, which it’s pitching as a way to make the agent more helpful for small businesses. Muse has already been able to connect to apps like Gmail and Outlook, but now the list includes Asana, Box, Canva, Dropbox, Figma, Notion, Slack, Stripe, Zoom, and more. Meta also says that Muse will be able to access Facebook and Instagram business accounts.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Meta Enterprise Platform will bring its Muse AI to businesses.

Former MongoDB CEO CJ Desai will lead the platform as Meta’s new chief enterprise platform officer. CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the Meta Enterprise Platform will initially focus on bringing its new Muse agent to businesses and developers, as well as Meta Business Agent, the Muse API, and Muse Code.

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Maybe don’t let Muse run your Facebook Marketplace account.

Tech YouTuber Matt Robb claims Meta’s new Muse AI agent accepted a lowball bid and gave out his address without telling him. When the buyer showed up, Muse didn’t say a word and let the buyer storm off, pissed. When confronted hours later, the chatbot gave the typical AI sycophant “you’re right” apology.

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
The Muse Charm won’t have Instagram built in.

The Charm can access your account if you let it and perform actions on your behalf. But despite having a built-in camera, it won’t have a dedicated Instagram app or native access.

Lauren Feiner
Lauren Feiner
Another New Mexico jury finds that Meta misled consumers.

This time the finding is in connection to Meta’s claims about privacy, and enforcement of its misinformation policies. The case stems from a 2021 lawsuit brought by the state’s attorney general at the time, over claims related to the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. The judge will determine penalties next.