April 29 (Reuters) - Facebook parent Meta Platforms ( META )

on Tuesday launched a separate app for its Meta AI

assistant, similar to those offered by Microsoft ( MSFT )-backed

OpenAI and Alphabet's Google.

The standalone app comes as Meta looks to boost the AI

assistant's usage, apart from being available within the

company's family of platforms - WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook

and Messenger.

It also signals CEO Mark Zuckerberg's move to strengthen the

company's position in the competitive AI landscape, taking on

major rivals such as OpenAI and Google.

Meta's separate app will provide more personalized responses

based on context and other user-specific elements related to the

user's Facebook and Instagram accounts.

Llama 4, Meta's latest large language model, powers the Meta

AI assistant and is designed to rival the latest AI models from

OpenAI, Google, Deepseek and Anthropic, with improved reasoning,

multilingual capabilities and efficiency.

The new app will integrate with Meta's AI glasses and merge

with the existing companion app, the company said.

Meta is hosting its first-ever AI developer event, dubbed

LlamaCon, on Tuesday, which will center around its Llama family

of AI models.

The Instagram owner is set to report its first-quarter

results on Wednesday after markets close.

Meta will start testing a paid subscription for the AI

chatbot's advanced versions in the second quarter, Reuters had

reported in February.

However, the subscription service might not rake in

meaningful revenue until next year at the earliest, a source had

said.

Meta AI, which was launched in September 2023, is a virtual

assistant that uses large language models to perform reasoning

tasks.