Meta Smart Glasses just got the AI upgrade I’ve been waiting for

Alan Truly
·2 min read
Phil Nickinson wearing the Apple AirPods Pro and Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.
Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

Meta loves to upgrade its hardware with extra features, and the Ray-Ban smart glasses that I found to be very impressive are getting a big AI update starting today. Lives=treaming capabilities are also expanding.

New features are great, but if you couldn’t find a style you liked when the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses launched last October, there’s more good news — new styles are on the way too.

Multimodal AI

In our comprehensive list of the best smart glasses to buy in 2024, I mentioned that Meta was testing multimodal input for its Ray-Ban smart glasses. That feature is now rolling out to everyone in the U.S. and Canada.

In the next few weeks, you should get this update that allows your Meta smart glasses to “see” what you’re looking at and ask questions. Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew “Boz” Bosworth demonstrated how it works in an Instagram post in December.

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A post shared by Andrew Bosworth (Boz) (@boztank)

Share your view

Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses will let you share your view in Whatsapp and Messenger.
Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses will let you share your view in Whatsapp and Messenger. Meta

You can already live stream to Instagram from Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, but there wasn’t a way to share your view with particular people. In an update that’s coming soon, you’ll be able to show your Whatsapp and Messenger friends what you’re looking at and where you are through your Ray-Bans.

You don’t need to join a beta test to receive these updates. Meta does staged rollouts, so you might get the new version today or in a few weeks. Just make sure you have automatic updates switched on in the Meta View app.

New Ray-Ban styles

Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses have several new styles, including Skyler and Scuderia Ferrari.
Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses have several new styles, including Skyler and Scuderia Ferrari. Meta

Essilor Luxottica created a new cat-eye Skyler style and will add limited-edition Scuderia Ferrari frames to the family that already offers Ray-Ban’s classic Wayfarer and Headliner frames. If you’ve tried smart glasses years ago, it’s time to take another look. The current generation of smart glasses is slimmer and lighter than ever.

Each frame is available in clear, tinted, polarized, or transitions lenses. Transitions are photochromatic lenses that get darker in sunlight, automatically increasing your comfort on a bright day, then becoming clear when you step inside.