Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses can now upload photos directly to Instagram Stories

The latest update also gives the glasses access to Amazon Music.

Photo by Karissa Bell / Engadget

Meta has updated its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses to give it more hands-free capabilities, starting with a new feature that lets you share images as Instagram Stories without having to take out your phone. You can just say "Hey Meta, share my last photo to Instagram," if you've already snapped the photo you want. But you can also say "Hey Meta, post a photo to Instagram" if you want to be more spontaneous and take a picture to upload as a Story on the spot. It's for those moments you don't mind sharing with your followers, unedited, in real time.

In addition, you'll now be able to get your glasses to quickly play your tunes on Amazon Music. Just say "Hey Meta, play Amazon Music" to start listening through the smart glasses' open-ear audio system. And yes, you'll be able to control the audio with the device's touch controls or with your voice. If you have a Calm account and need to decompress, you can listen to guided meditation or mindfulness exercises on your smart glasses instead. To do so, just say "Hey Meta, play the Daily Calm." And if you don't have a Calm account, you can get a three-month subscription for free if you follow the on-screen prompts in the Meta View app. All these features are "rolling out gradually," so you'll eventually get access to them if you don't have them yet.

Last month, Meta also rolled out multimodal AI for the Ray-Ban smart glasses after months of testing. It enables the smart glasses to act as a personal AI gadget outside of the smartphone, similar to the Rabbit R1 and the Humane AI Pin. Thanks to that update, you can now ask the smart glasses to describe objects in the environment, identify landmarks and read signs in different languages, which sounds especially useful for frequent travelers. Meta also gave the device the ability to make hands-free video calls with WhatsApp and Messenger.

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