Meta introduces camera-free AI glasses

Confirming earlier reports, Meta announced its first pair of camera-free AI glasses, the clunkily named Ray-Ban Meta Audio, at its Connect 2026 conference on Wednesday. Designed to combat criticism around the more malicious use cases for AI glasses, which saw them nicknamed “pervert glasses” by some, the new devices will be audio-only, offering the ability to listen to music and podcasts, take calls, translate speech, and communicate with Meta’s AI assistant, Muse.

The glasses are designed by Meta’s partner in its AI hardware efforts, EssilorLuxottica, and will start at $349.

While Meta today offers a range of AI glasses in a variety of styles, colors, and capabilities, the audio-only glasses could help the brand recover from some of the reputational damage after critics pointed out how people, often men, were using AI glasses to record videos without subjects’ consent. Meta attempted to mitigate this issue with an update that would disable the camera if the LED light that indicated the glasses were recording was ever tampered with. However, the creepiness factor remained.

This latest device could prove to be more popular for that reason, while also providing an answer to something like Apple’s Siri-powered AirPods.

“Once you get used to high quality audio, it’s just a thing that you want all the time, right?” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during a keynote Wednesday, adding that the company after working on the idea realized it could design a whole new category of glasses around audio glasses.

Because they don’t have to house cameras, the glasses are slimmer than Meta’s other models and weigh only 43 grams. They also have adjustable temple tips, swappable nose pads, overextension hinges, and battery life of up to 12 hours on a single charge, Meta claims. With the included charging case, that battery life extends to up to 48 hours.

The glasses will be available for preorder on October 13, the company noted.

View Bio