❯ Manus unveils Manus 2.0 and the Cue personal-agent app, giving each agent its own email, phone number, wallet and computer

Agents with identitiesBloomberg reports that on September 28 Manus launched Manus 2.0 and Cue, a standalone personal-agent app. In Cue each agent has its own email address, phone number, wallet and computer, so it can send messages, pay within a budget the user sets, and finish a task on its own machine; it can also take calls and leave a summary. Several specialized agents can work in parallel and talk to one another.

New architecture underneathAccording to Manus’s blog, version 2.0 introduces an agent architecture called Cascade, which the company says uses 23.2% fewer tokens, finishes tasks 28.2% faster and costs 32% less than the old system. Cloud Computer gives always-on projects a dedicated environment, and automations now trigger on events such as an email arriving, ad-performance changes, calendar entries or Slack messages, not just schedules. The desktop app, Manus Studio, adds video editing and game-development tools.

Early access, invite onlyCue is free in early access with an invite code, on web, desktop and mobile, with the iOS version awaiting App Store review. Manus is Singapore-based and said weeks ago that it had resumed independent operations, after Beijing blocked Meta’s $2 billion acquisition and the two companies completed a split.

Authority and budgets become the core questionGiving an agent a wallet and a phone means users must draw lines between convenience and risk: how large a budget, which payments need human sign-off, and how an agent identifies itself when it speaks for its owner. It echoes Nvidia’s agent-containment platform the same day: the more an agent can do, the clearer its boundaries need to be.

▪ SIGNALOnce an agent has money and a phone number, how much power users are willing to hand over becomes the dividing line between products.