Last fall, Meta introduced the second generation of its collaboration with EssilorLuxottica, the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. They seemed intriguing and received reasonably good reviews. For a little bit, I kept going back and forth about buying a pair, but I just couldn’t make a decision. The standard form of these is sunglasses, and it just didn’t seem completely worth it.
In the early part of 2024, Meta introduced some new features in beta that brought AI to these glasses, which allowed you to use their camera to ask questions about your surroundings to Meta’s AI, or even just ask general questions to the LLM. By the time these started to compare favorably to some new dedicated AI devices like the Humane AI Pin and the Rabbit R1, I decided to finally pursue getting some of these.
I decided that it would be a good idea to get transition lenses rather than sunglasses. Since I now have to wear glasses when I’m doing a significant amount of reading or staring at screens, I could have the opportunity to wear these basically all the time if I wanted to. I could wear them inside at home or work, and take them outside in the sun and keep going. Of course, getting prescription lenses cranked the price up significantly. While these start at $299, mine were about $650 before the roughly $200 I saved with insurance.
The Ray-Ban Meta charging case. This charges the glasses multiple times before it needs to be recharged itself via USB-C.
So now that I’ve decided to get these glasses, what even are they? They’re designed to be similar to Ray-Ban’s classic styles, and the one I chose was the Wayfarer. While there are definitely clues that these are not regular glasses, they don’t exactly scream that they’re smart. The stems are a little bulkier to house batteries and speakers, and of course there are the circles on the corners of the front of the glasses (camera on one side, capture LED on the other). The right stem houses a touch sensor that allows you to control numerous functions of the device. But for the most part, you might be lucky enough to have others not even notice.
Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarers with clear lenses (image: Ray-Ban)
That camera will capture 12 MP portrait-aspect ratio photos (3024 x 4032) and HD vertical video (1440 x 1920). You can press the button at the top of the right front of the glasses to snap a picture, or you can hold it to start a video. Originally, videos only would go for one minute, but updates have extended that to three minutes if you desire. You can share those pictures instantly directly to Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, or Messenger, or anywhere later on if you want. You can also livestream to Instagram or Facebook, but only for up to 30 minutes or so due to how severely it taxes the battery.
The photos and videos you take turn out surprisingly well, and have a great first-person perspective. They’re not quite modern phone quality, but they get the job done and it’s definitely simpler and easier to grab a snap before it’s too late. They do tend to be rather saturated. The biggest challenge is making sure you get what you want in frame since you can’t frame it yourself. The companion Meta View app (which drives pairing the glasses, settings, updates, etc) conveniently will help automatically fix your framing if your head is cocked a little sideways. You can always override the changes if you want the full capture.
One thing I see discussed often is the privacy aspect of wearing glasses with a camera. Some think it’s inappropriate for certain settings or that it’s too easy to be a “glasshole” and capture moments that shouldn’t be captured. I would argue that it’s no different than using a phone. If you’re taking a picture of someone with a phone, they’re going to see you holding it up and pointing at them. Same thing with these... while you can try to be slick and make it look like you’re adjusting your glasses when you press the button, someone is still going to notice you’re looking right at them and the LED capture light as well. It’s hard to miss. Ultimately, it’s up to the wearer to be respectful of those they’re around. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you have to.
Probably my biggest use case for these glasses is as a Bluetooth speaker. There are two downward-firing speakers toward the back of the stems that shoot straight into your ears. Due to the nature of the setup, these aren’t the loudest, and it can be difficult to hear if there is significant ambient noise. But when you’re in a normal quiet-to-moderate environment, you can easily hear a podcast playing at about 50% volume or less. And the best part? No one else can hear you, as long as you keep the volume level reasonable. You can play music, of course, but bass is going to be compromised. And the louder you play, the likelier it is others will be annoyed and the quicker you will deplete the battery. These are perfect for podcasts and videos, or any other quick video you might have sent to you or come across on social media. And you don’t have to pull out your AirPods or (gasp!) turn up the volume on your phone in a public place (please don’t do that). You can link your Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Calm accounts to the app to enable easy integration with your library and favorites using the touchpad on the right stem. And of course, you can also initiate playback on your phone in any app.
One thing I don’t use very much is the ability to be a Bluetooth headset for phone calls. This is primarily because I just don’t talk on the phone that much. But when I have, it is amazing. There are five microphones incorporated in the glasses to provide great sound (this is also very helpful when filming video), and of course, the speakers provide a good rendition of the person on the other end. And you are free to just do whatever you want because you’re not holding your phone. One downside is if you are in any sort of public environment, there are no obvious signals to others that you are in fact on a phone call and not talking to yourself and may not be available to talk to them. At least if you’re using AirPods or some equivalent, others may notice that you have that in your ear. With the glasses, you’re just talking (or listening and looks like you’re doing nothing). In addition to audio calls, they have also added the ability to use the glasses as a first-person perspective for a video call in WhatsApp and Messenger. You can start a call on your phone and then hand off to your glasses camera. You can either keep watching the other person on your phone or you can just put the phone away and listen only.
The AI features of the glasses are kind of hit and miss. As with any LLMs, you can get some surprisingly good answers, but you can also get some frustratingly bad responses. One thing that is touted in advertisements is the “Hey Meta” wake word for these glasses, which allows you to interact hands-free. You can say “Hey Meta” and perform many of the functions the glasses provide, including taking pictures, videos, playing music, summoning the Meta assistant to ask a question or inquire about what you’re looking at, etc. I’ll be honest, though... after maybe a week, I decided to turn off the “Hey Meta” function. Why? Primarily, battery life. I found that when I left the “Hey Meta” active, the glasses would never make it past four hours even if I was doing nothing else. Numerous things can use up the limited battery, including taking pictures, taking videos, playing audio, taking phone calls, talking to the assistant, etc. But at least you can gauge how much you’re impacting the battery if you’re doing those things. Having “Hey Meta” on was just a constant background drain, and ensured I would have to charge my glasses at work (at least once). Of course, these still work as glasses when the battery is extinguished, but you can’t do the things you’d been doing.
With “Hey Meta” turned off, you can still activate the assistant by pressing and holding the touchpad on the right stem. It’s not that difficult to do, as long as your hands are free. If there was a situation where you may think you’d like to do things with the glasses and your hands will not be available, you could temporarily turn it back on. So what can you do with the Meta AI? Lots of things. Ask what time it is in Paris. Convert meters to yards or feet. Ask who’s winning the golf tournament. Ask Meta to “look and tell” you what you’re looking at. It can even read something on the screen or book you’re looking at and summarize it or tell you more about it. As with any LLM, there are many possibilities; it just depends on your imagination. Sometimes it does a good job, sometimes it doesn’t.
A negative to interacting with the assistant/ Meta AI with the glasses is consistent with any other voice assistants... you have to talk out loud. That’s fine when you are by yourself at home, or alone on a walk with no one around, or in your car. But pretty much any other time? Not ideal. Some people somehow don’t care about talking on the phone, playing music, and doing other things loudly on their devices in public. That isn’t me. While lots of modern voice systems can do some pretty cool things (even old Siri), ultimately they’re limited by how much you care about bothering those around you. This goes for Siri, ChatGPT voice mode, Gemini Live, Meta AI, and many more. I don’t want to be blabbing out loud to these things. Not that what I would be saying is necessarily embarrassing, it just feels so terribly awkward to say or ask any commands when others are close by. And I know all about awkwardness.
So how long do these glasses typically last on a charge? Ultimately, it’ll depend on what you’re doing with them, but on a given day, I can usually get from home, to lunch, to work, and through an 8-hour shift and back home without charging. Usually, that involves a little bit of listening to podcasts when I’m at lunch and during the workday when I’m not otherwise engaged, plus perhaps a picture or two while I’m driving or if I see something interesting. Sometimes if I’m doing lots of listening or happen to work a longer overnight shift, I need to recharge. Which is relatively easy, but not crazy fast. You have to remove the glasses and place them in their charging case. The case gives you at least five recharges of the glasses (I usually wind up doing it every few days so I don’t forget), and it charges up via USB-C. If you were out and about on a Saturday taking lots of pictures or video, you might drain the glasses a bit quicker. You can transfer your photos anytime by connecting to them from your phone via an ad-hoc WiFi network, or you can set your glasses to auto-import when they’re placed in the case and are on a preferred WiFi network.
What don’t I like about these glasses? Naturally, longer battery life would be nice. But I think these are pretty reasonable as is, so I can’t really complain. Probably my biggest gripe is with the transitions lenses, which in theory should be amazing, but in practice do not turn to dark like I would prefer. These lenses are reactive to UV light, and apparently it isn’t as available as one would think. Going outside can cause a mild darkening, but even in very intense midday sun, will not go completely dark. And of course, driving in a car (a time when sunglasses are quite helpful) doesn’t cause hardly any change because of the UV-protected automotive glass. It’d be pretty cool if there was a button or something where I could toggle between clear and full dark. I’m not even sure if that exists in the glasses world, but it would be awesome if it did. Fortunately, I spend a significant amount of my time indoors, and I don’t live in Arizona anymore, so this isn’t a dealbreaker, it just isn’t perfect.
While I enjoy the ability to summon the Meta assistant, it would be nice if there was some way to pass through to my phone assistant (Siri) so I could control phone functions, run Shortcuts, etc. I can summon Siri on my phone and then speak and listen using the glasses, but if the phone isn’t directly available, this would be a good feature. I would also appreciate the ability to easily pair to other devices (like an iPad) to be able to switch to that and listen to audio if necessary. While these are not able to be completely directly integrated into the ecosystem you use (Apple or Android), they do mostly play nice with the phone you have and the way you use it. This differs dramatically from the other new AI devices (AI Pin, R1) that require having a SIM card or WiFi connection of their own and try to stand alone from the phone you use every day rather than working with it.
Regular updates have continued to improve the feature set of these glasses since their introduction. There’s obviously no guarantee of additions, but they’ve added a fair number of things so far.
Should you buy these? I guess it’s up to you. Do you need to wear glasses or are you fine wearing glasses even if you don’t? Do you value having these features available to you and don’t mind others judging you for staying on the cutting edge of technology? These are pretty great.