Meta AI arrives on Mac with screen-aware chat

Meta is rolling out a dedicated Meta AI app for Mac, adding screen-aware conversations, system-wide dictation, and tools aimed at businesses and creators. Itzine reports that the app can use what is visible in a shared window to answer questions, offer advice, and create content.

The app is version 1.0 beta at launch and occupies about 16MB. According to 9to5Mac’s inspection, it runs natively on Apple silicon Macs with macOS 15 or later, using AppKit and SwiftUI with WebKit for richer chat content rather than an Electron wrapper or repackaged iPad app.

A Quick Invoke shortcut, Option-Space, opens a compact composer over the current app. Users can also hold a separate dictation shortcut to type spoken words into Mail, documents, code editors, and other Mac applications. Meta AI can attach another Mac window to a conversation, then read its visible text and capture a screenshot after the user grants Screen Recording and Accessibility permissions.

That screen feature currently gathers context for a response; it does not control the computer. The sidebar also includes Media, Artifacts, scheduled tasks, conversation history, and an About Me personalization area. Users can switch between thinking modes, attach files, generate media, and set up recurring briefings or reminders. The Dock icon can be hidden so the assistant is launched entirely from the keyboard.

Meta AI adds business data and recurring work

The Mac release is also a push toward business use. Engadget reports that professional Facebook and Instagram accounts can connect Meta AI to Google Workspace, allowing it to pull relevant documents, spreadsheets, and other work data. The app can also connect to Meta advertising campaigns and account analytics, including reach, likes, reposts, saves, and ad performance.

Meta says the assistant can use those account signals to suggest what a business should publish next, answer questions about its performance, and offer guidance on posts, ads, and other content. It can combine business-account data with publicly available information about comparable brands, then create presentations, documents, and spreadsheets. Recurring tasks such as weekly performance reports are supported as well.

“You can ask Meta AI questions about your business and get answers drawn from the context only Meta has, like your account engagement and ad performance.”

The Mac app is free to use, although Engadget notes that Meta has been introducing rate limits for more advanced features that require a Meta One plan. Meta has not provided pricing for that plan in the supplied reports.

The desktop app gives Meta AI a more direct place on the Mac than its web and mobile versions, but its most notable new capability is still limited to seeing the active window. The company has not said that the app can operate other applications autonomously.