The last two weeks have been a parade of agents that keep working after users close the tab.
OpenAI put Dots inside ChatGPT. Meta is still pushing Muse. In that same window, a company that was supposed to be inside Meta by now shipped its own stack and asked people to download two apps instead of one.
Manus, founded in China and now run from Singapore after Beijing blocked Meta's reported $2 billion purchase in April, posted 'Manus 2.0' with a long launch video.
The thread pointed to a desktop build called Manus Studio, a consumer app called 'Cue,' and a blog that insists this is not a point release.
The company calls it a new architecture.
The piece of that architecture it wants measured is Cascade, an in-house harness that starts a project light and pulls in extra tools only when the work needs them. In one tested configuration, Manus says Cascade used 23.2% fewer tokens, finished 28.2% faster, and cost 32% less than the prior system.
It did not publish the tasks or the setup behind those percentages.
Studio is the power-user desktop: documents, sheets, PDFs, slides, sites, code, plus two new rooms labeled Video Editor and Game Dev. Video Editor is aimed at short ads, UGC, motion graphics, tutorials, and vlogs.
Game Dev is for people who already have a game in their head and want more than a first draft.
Cloud Computer is a paid environment that stays up when the laptop closes, which matters if the project is a multiplayer server or an automation that has to run overnight.
Automations replace the old scheduled-task model. A new email, a Slack message, a Notion change, a calendar event, or a shift in ad numbers can start a job.
Users can describe the watch condition in one prompt. Whether that holds up outside a demo is the usual agent question.
And as for Cue, it is the the product built for people who do not want a studio.
It runs on the same backend, on phone and desktop, with iOS still waiting on App Store review. Early access is free with an invite.
The public code in the post is MEETCUE, first come first served, with extra codes for people who get in.
With Cue, each agent gets an identity: an email address, a phone number, a wallet, and its own computer.
What this means, it can message, take calls and leave a summary, and pay inside a budget the user sets. Several agents can sit in a group chat and pass work around.
The consumer example is a restaurant QR code. Scan it and the agent orders or holds a place in line. That is the same pitch Meta makes with Muse and OpenAI makes with Dots: give the model an account, a machine, and permission, then let it leave the chat window.
The timing is the other half of the story.
Manus was an early name in this wave in 2025, then spent months as an acquisition that did not close. It said in early September that the founding team was running the company again. This week it is hiring in China and talking about a domestic product line while 2.0 and Cue go out to overseas users.
Manus 2.0 is live on web, desktop, and mobile. Cue is still gated, but the launch did the job a launch thread is supposed to do.
