Meta brings AI, video calls, and new styles to its Ray-Ban smart glasses

Ben Schoon | Apr 23 2024 - 12:51 pm PT

The dream of smart glasses has never died, but it’s also never truly succeeded. With its Ray-Ban smart glasses, though, Meta seems to have cracked the code, and it’s now bringing new AI features, video calling, and more to its smart glasses built in partnership with Ray-Ban.

Meta’s second-generation smart glasses launched last year to pretty high acclaim. The glasses offer a built-in camera as well as microphones and speakers to help bring useful tools to you in an ambient way. There’s no built-in display, but it’s still a useful device.

Now, Meta is building on this idea in some big ways.

Rolling out via some new updates, Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are picking up some new tricks. Two of those use the camera. In a bit of brand synergy, the glasses’ camera will be usable in WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger video calls. This is rolling out “gradually,” but seems super useful for sharing your point-of-view.

Beyond that, the camera can also now be used for multimodal AI. In other words, you can now ask a prompt to Meta’s AI which can snap a picture from the camera to use the context of what you’re seeing. This has been in testing since late last year, but is now rolling out in beta to everyone who owns the glasses in the US and Canada.

Meta offers an example of how this might be useful:

Say you’re traveling and trying to read a menu in French. Your smart glasses can use their built-in camera and Meta AI to translate the text for you, giving you the info you need without having to pull out your phone or stare at a screen.

Finally, Meta Ray-Ban glasses are getting some new styles. The “Skyler” frame is now up for pre-order, and there’s also a new low-bridge option for the Headliner style.

These new styles are available for pre-order at Meta’s online store and from Ray-Ban. You can order Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses in select styles from Amazon, Best Buy, and other retailers too.

As 9to5Mac notes, Meta also added Apple Music integration in a recent update.