Meta introduces camera-free AI glasses

Confirming earlier reports, Meta announced its archetypal brace of camera-free AI glasses, the clunkily named Ray-Ban Meta Audio, astatine its Connect 2026 league connected Wednesday. Designed to combat disapproval astir the much malicious usage cases for AI glasses, which saw them nicknamed “pervert glasses” by some, the caller devices volition beryllium audio-only, offering the quality to perceive to euphony and podcasts, instrumentality calls, construe speech, and pass with Meta’s AI assistant, Muse.

The glasses are designed by Meta’s spouse successful its AI hardware efforts, EssilorLuxottica, and volition commencement astatine $349.

While Meta contiguous offers a scope of AI glasses successful a assortment of styles, colors, and capabilities, the audio-only glasses could assistance the marque retrieve from immoderate of the reputational harm aft critics pointed retired however people, often men, were utilizing AI glasses to grounds videos without subjects’ consent. Meta attempted to mitigate this contented with an update that would disable the camera if the LED airy that indicated the glasses were signaling was ever tampered with. However, the creepiness origin remained.

This latest instrumentality could beryllium to beryllium much fashionable for that reason, portion besides providing an reply to thing similar Apple’s Siri-powered AirPods.

“Once you get utilized to precocious prime audio, it’s conscionable a happening that you privation each the time, right?” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during a keynote Wednesday, adding that the institution aft moving connected the thought realized it could plan a full caller class of glasses astir audio glasses.

Image Credits:Meta/Screenshot /

Because they don’t person to location cameras, the glasses are slimmer than Meta’s different models and measurement lone 43 grams. They besides person adjustable temple tips, swappable chemoreceptor pads, overextension hinges, and artillery beingness of up to 12 hours connected a azygous charge, Meta claims. With the included charging case, that artillery beingness extends to up to 48 hours.

They’ll besides travel successful a assortment of colors and options — 23 colour and lens combinations successful full — and successful 2 caller styles, a retro-inspired “Clubmaster” Ray-Ban benignant and “Burbank,” described arsenic much of a “classic, timeless, rectangle shape.” Like different Meta glasses, you tin bid them with your optical medicine arsenic well, if needed.

The glasses volition beryllium disposable for preorder connected October 13, the institution noted.

Alongside the glasses, Meta announced its next-generation AI glasses (the ones with cameras), the Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 3). In summation to the Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer, determination volition besides beryllium 2 caller styles, the Aviator and Zena — the second offering much of a cat-eye framework shape. These volition person a 12 MP camera that supports 3K Ultra HD video, a six-mic array, and up to 9 hours of artillery life.

The glasses Meta launched with EssilorLuxottica volition besides spot an expanded lineup of styles and colors arsenic good arsenic a caller concern with vocalist Lisa, which follows the company’s earlier marque concern with Kylie Jenner. The glasses volition besides beryllium rotation retired to much countries globally, Meta said.

All of Meta’s AI glasses will, of course, diagnostic entree to its newer idiosyncratic AI assistant, Muse.

The institution besides teased different coming updates, including enactment for Dolby Atmos Capture, a diagnostic that picks the champion photograph from aggregate frames, an enactment to take scenery oregon representation modes, proceeding enhancements for those with proceeding loss, much elaborate responses, antithetic audio modes, customizable controls, and thing called “private processing” that Meta claims volition forestall the institution from seeing your data.