As Google, Samsung, Warby Parker, Gentle Monster and Xreal ready their first smart glasses for the fall, Meta’s launching a new line of its own smart glasses to get a head start on the competition. And Instagram star Kylie Jenner is part of it.
I saw the new-look glasses in person at a Meta event in New York on Monday, and for the most part they’re subtle design riffs on looks that have already been around. This time, however, the glasses are only Meta branded (called Meta Glasses), without any Ray-Ban or Oakley branding at all. They’re still being made by Essilor Luxottica and sold via the same retail channels, but they start at a lower price than Ray-Ban and Oakley models: $299 and up, versus $379 for Ray-Ban Gen 2 glasses or $499 for the Ray-Ban Scriber and Blazer Optics glasses that launched this spring.
Meta is by far the leader when it comes to consumer adoption of smart glasses. In the first quarter of this year, its Ray-Ban lineup accounted for 69% of shipments, which jumped 167% year over year, according to market researcher IDC. But in his report, issued last week, IDC research manager Jitesh Ubrani wrote that “the challengers assembling against it are formidable.”
Watch this: New Meta Glasses Hands-On: New Designs Start at $299, and There’s a Kylie Jenner Model?
Lower price, comfier fit?
The price drop is probably going to be welcome, especially since these glasses look to be otherwise the same comfort and feature sets of existing Ray-Ban and Oakley models. All the glasses are designed with a comfort fit like the new Scriber/Blazer models, which I’m wearing as my regular glasses right now, and they feature adjustable nose pads and flexible arms with customizable temple ends. They have the same battery life and camera quality as the Gen 2 and later models that launched last fall, and the dual camera and AI rocker button on the top that the Scriber/Blazer models added.
I tried the “Fury,” a chunkier-frame pair of Meta Glasses that look a lot like the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, minus the displays. I actually like the look, but I’m a chunky glasses guy. (The nose pad wasn’t as comfy as the Blazer Optics pair I’ve been wearing, though.)
Another frame design, the “Adventurer,” is very much like the Ray-Bans, but without a Ray-Ban logo or official brand, and more compact than the Fury model.
The Kylie Edition Meta glasses come with a little sparkle in one lens and a mirrored charge case.
Kylie Jenner?
There’s also a new frame design made with pop culture force Kylie Jenner, which has a look that’s kind of similar to the Gentle Monster Google glasses announced at Google I/O in May. The Jenner design (Meta Starfire Kylie Edition) has horizontal oval lenses, a little sparkly gem embedded in one of the lenses, a charging case with its own vanity mirror and a little note inside from Jenner. These glasses are more expensive, but Meta didn’t share the exact price of them with us.
The Meta Fury glasses are thick, similar to the Ray-Ban Displays. These don’t have my prescription here in the demo experience, but they could accommodate my range.
Prescription support, but no real AI or privacy changes
Meta’s clearly going after an expanded set of design looks in time for summer, as CTO Andrew Bosworth discussed in a Q&A at the event. But what interests me more is Meta’s supposedly more prescription-friendly lens servicing: Lenses can fit from -12 to +2.5, and can be added to the glasses after purchase more easily.
If only Meta’s approach to AI and privacy were improved. There are a few AI upgrades arriving alongside these new glasses: added languages for translation (14 now) and turn-by-turn navigation. But Meta’s AI services lack a lot of hook-ins to phone apps and other AI services, something Bosworth acknowledged, hinting at “agentic” AI plans that may be announced at Meta’s Connect conference in September.
And while Meta’s been hammered lately for AI privacy concerns about its glasses and worries about camera-equipped glasses being used to record without consent, Bosworth didn’t seem to budge on any design or privacy changes for the glasses going forward.
More glasses on the horizon?
Meta’s head of wearables, Alex Himel, told me that spring and summer are a hot time for glasses, so the timing of Monday’s event made sense for these new models. But there are more Meta glasses on the horizon, Himel hinted.
I asked whether future Meta glasses would be able to either offer more professional-targeted cameras or go camera-free. In a Q&A session, Bosworth acknowledged interest in a less expensive camera-free audio pair of Meta glasses, while Himel said more software tools for post-camera processing are of interest.
“We want to be as good as the 2024 state of the art,” Himel said of the camera level of Meta glasses compared to those in phones, but acknowledged that camera quality is always a big focus for Meta.
Meta will need to keep being aggressive on glasses plans, especially with Google and Samsung’s models coming soon and Apple expected to have its own glasses next year. But new designs and lower prices are just one part of the challenge. Meta needs to improve its AI features and prove it’s more serious about privacy, too.
