Sesame, the conversational AI startup from Oculus founders, launches its iOS app

Sesame, an AI startup co-founded by Oculus founders and others from the VR company that sold to Meta, released a public preview of its conversational AI agents on Thursday. The agents have been in development for over a year. With its new iOS app, the company aims to create an experience where conversation flows naturally even if the AI needs time to think. The company noted an inherent tension between replying quickly and composing thoughtful responses. A slower response is usually more correct but can feel unnatural if it takes too long. Sesame built fast search and retrieval systems so the AI can access up-to-date information and run multiple parallel searches while speaking. The AI weaves those results into its responses as it talks. This capability lets the AI talk more like a human and pivot in the middle of a sentence if needed as it taps into newer information. The app provides four distinct AI agents called Maya, Miles, Simone, and Charlie, each with its own voice, personality, point of view, and memory. Maya and Miles were previously available in a Research Preview accessed by over a million people in the first few weeks, according to investor Sequoia. The company had raised its $250 million Series B from Sequoia and others and was opening up a beta at that time. During the beta, Sesame added features such as search cards with image results, notes for capturing takeaways, a texting mode, and support for deep dives based on user feedback. A new incognito mode allows agents access to prior context but saves nothing to memory. The iOS app is available today in 39 countries with the full experience free for now, though a short waitlist may exist at sign-up. An Android preview is coming in the future. The app is the first step toward plans for intelligent eyewear expected to launch in 2027. The agents are expected to do more than think with users and later take action on their behalf.