Meta Named the Personal Agent Protocol on Its Q3 Earnings Call. Here's What It Said

On Meta's third-quarter earnings call on 21 October 2026, the Personal Agent Protocol came up on an earnings call for the first time, two weeks after it was announced. Asked about friction in agent shopping, Meta's chief financial officer, Susan Li, described where she expects it to go, and named the protocol as Meta's part in getting there.

The same call gave the first official numbers for Muse, Meta's personal agent. That made the comment more than a footnote: the agent behind the protocol already has more than 10 million people using it, and shopping is what they do most. This post sets out what Meta said, how it lines up with the current draft of the protocol, and what it means for companies deciding whether to publish a poppy.json.

#What did Meta say about the Personal Agent Protocol?

Li said Meta is "helping establish the standards" for agents and businesses, and that earlier in October it previewed the Personal Agent Protocol, which she described as an open standard across Muse and Meta's business agents that Meta is developing with partners including Sierra, Walmart, Stripe and Shopify. In her words, the protocol is meant to define how a consumer's personal agent "can interact securely and reliably with the business' agent and preserve appropriate controls for both the business and customers."

It was an answer to a question, not part of the prepared remarks, which makes the context worth keeping. Li said some businesses are "understandably focused on protecting customer relationships", that adoption will be uneven and take time, and that many experiences will stay AI-assisted rather than fully autonomous in the near term.

#The direction: from browsing like a person to permissioned access

The most useful part of the answer is the shift Li described. She said Meta expects the market "to evolve away from agents attempting to navigate every digital experience like a human", towards "more permissioned, structured interactions". She named three forms those take:

1. authenticated APIs
2. approved agent partnerships
3. direct communication between a person's agent and a business's own agent

Each has a counterpart in draft 0.2 of the specification, which is still in progress and can change before 1.0:

None of this is new in the spec. What's new is Meta describing it to investors as the way agent commerce is headed.

#What Meta said about Muse

The numbers came from Mark Zuckerberg's prepared remarks:

• More than 10 million people in the US and Canada set up Muse in about a month and a half.
• About 25% of people who have set it up use it on any given day.
• Shopping is the most common use, with more than a quarter of users shopping through it and an average purchase of over $200.
• In the first week Meta had to work with Stripe to raise credit limits because volumes were higher than expected.

Zuckerberg also said businesses have been reaching out to integrate with Muse, and Li described Muse for small businesses, which launched in late September. Over time, she said, consumer and business agents "could connect and transact directly".

Some charts circulating after the call add download comparisons and week-one retention figures. Those come from app-analytics estimates, not from Meta.

#The same day, a retailer showed what permissioned access looks like

Also on 21 October, Walmart, one of the partners Li named, launched its Agent Gateway and published Agentic Access Terms for AI agents. Walmart named Muse as a partner. Its terms read close to what Li described:

• Agents identify themselves. On request, an agent must say it is an agent and who operates it.
• A person approves. Outside the gateway, a person approves every checkout.
• Registered agents get more. In the gateway, registered agents receive a credential, talk to Walmart's own assistant, Sparky, and can check out within limits the customer sets with Walmart.
• The customer links each agent. Each agent gets a separate profile in the customer's account, linked when the customer signs in to Walmart.

Walmart describes the gateway as "an MCP or similar connection protocol" and doesn't mention the Personal Agent Protocol. But the shape matches the draft closely: a known agent, sign-in at the company, a separate grant per agent, and the company proposing while the customer's limits decide.

#What it means for companies

• The protocol has a commercial sponsor saying where it's going. Meta named it as the standard for agent-to-agent dealings across Muse and its business agents, on the same call where it said it plans to earn fees on the transactions Muse helps complete. That doesn't make the draft final, but it does make it more likely that agents will look for a poppy.json.
• You keep the gate. The draft lets a company require registration, keep allowlists, limit what an agent can do, and decide which sign-in types to offer. Publishing a poppy.json doesn't mean letting every agent in.
• Start with the public file. A poppy.json tells an agent how to find your sign-in server, your APIs and your own agent. You can check it before you publish, and see who already publishes one.
• Expect change. Draft 0.2 is still in progress, and any part of it can change before 1.0, including in ways that break earlier drafts.

#What comes next

• Muse on more surfaces. Zuckerberg said Muse comes to Meta's glasses starting next month.
• Walmart's Agent Profiles, which Walmart says launch in the next month.
• Draft 0.2 being finalised, and the open topics on the path to 1.0, including payments.
• More companies publishing poppy.json. New ones appear on the sites list.

#FAQ

#Did Meta mention the Personal Agent Protocol on its earnings call?

Yes. On the Q3 2026 call on 21 October, CFO Susan Li described it as an open standard across Muse and Meta business agents, developed with partners including Sierra, Walmart, Stripe and Shopify.

#What did Meta say the Personal Agent Protocol is for?

To define how a consumer's personal agent can interact securely and reliably with a business's agent, while keeping appropriate controls for both the business and the customer.

#How many people use Muse?

Meta said more than 10 million people in the US and Canada set up Muse in about six weeks, and about a quarter of them use it on any given day.

#Is shopping the main use of Muse?

Yes, according to Meta. More than a quarter of users shop through Muse, with an average purchase of over $200.

#Does Walmart's Agent Gateway use the Personal Agent Protocol?

Walmart describes the gateway as "an MCP or similar connection protocol" and doesn't name the Personal Agent Protocol. Walmart is one of the protocol's named partners, and the gateway's design is close to the draft.

#Is the Personal Agent Protocol final?

No. Draft 0.2 is in progress. Any part can change before a stable 1.0, and payments is still an open topic.

#Sources

• Meta Platforms Third Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call transcript, Meta Investor Relations, 21 October 2026
• Personal Agent Protocol specification, draft 0.2, in progress
• Path to 1.0, personalagentprotocol.org
• Introducing the Personal Agent Protocol, Sierra, 6 October 2026
• Walmart Agentic Access Terms, Walmart, October 21, 2026 Version
• Walmart Makes It Possible for Agents to Shop on Behalf of Customers, Walmart, 21 October 2026
• Meta says Muse has over 10M users, with shopping a top activity, TechCrunch, 21 October 2026