Meta (META.US) "cuts" the camera: $349 Ray-Ban glasses, with Muse and hearing aid features all in one

Meta Platforms Inc. (META.US) is expanding its smart glasses lineup with a camera-free model, support for the popular new Muse assistant, and a hearing aid mode. At its Connect conference on Wednesday, the social media giant unveiled Ray-Ban Meta Audio, its first pair of glasses without a camera. The company also introduced a third-generation model of its Ray-Ban glasses with a camera, as well as new versions of its more affordable Meta-branded glasses. The new audio-focused glasses let Meta revisit a product category that once drew fierce backlash over privacy concerns. Meta and the smart glasses industry more broadly have faced worries that device cameras could record people without their knowledge or consent. Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth said in an interview that the audio-only glasses were added to the company's product roadmap about two years ago because audio "remains the most popular feature in glasses." Removing the camera also allowed Meta to lower the price and weight while extending battery life, he said. Bosworth acknowledged that Meta was "a little lucky" to already have an audio-only product in the works given "the privacy narrative that's swirling around glasses globally." Still, he said the public debate contrasts with what the company sees in customer usage, adoption, sales and engagement all of which are on a "very, very positive trend." "My anecdotal experience of wearing them around is that people are pretty enthusiastic about the product," Bosworth said. "And then there's an extremely online concern. I'm not saying it's not a real concern. We have to take it seriously, and we do." Meta has made privacy a central part of its messaging around the glasses from the start, he added. For example, a light turns on to signal to others when the glasses are taking a photo or recording video. "We've been anticipating this the whole time," Bosworth said. "It's not like we just started taking it seriously." The camera-free glasses will start at $349 and are slated to ship Oct. 3. They will come in a rectangular Burbank frame and the classic Clubmaster style. In a demo, they didn't feel thicker or heavier than traditional Ray-Bans. The camera-free model also offers up to 12 hours of battery life on a single charge. That compares with nine hours now for the third-generation Ray-Ban Meta glasses, up from eight hours in the prior generation. The frames are slimmer than the previous version but still larger than the audio-only glasses. The third-generation model also includes a new "action button" that can be programmed for specific tasks, such as launching the Muse voice assistant. The camera-equipped model will come in three designs: the classic Aviator, the long-running best-selling Wayfarer and a new cat-eye frame called Zena. They also feature an upgraded microphone system designed to reduce background noise on calls, along with adjustable temple tips for a better fit. The third-generation Ray-Bans will start at $449, up from the current $379 starting price for the second generation. Bosworth attributed the increase largely to inflation and component shortages, though an industrywide memory chip constraint had less of an impact. Still, he said Meta has to account for the possibility of rising memory costs when pricing new products. "You have to plan for that volatility," Bosworth said, adding that the disruption could last "two years, three years, even four years." As part of the changes, Meta plans to bring its display glasses to international markets and sell them online for the first time. The company is also rolling out new styles and colors for its lower-priced in-house brand glasses, which launched in June. And it will introduce a new $249 version, down from $299 previously. It plans to bring the line to more markets, including Singapore and South Korea, and will launch a $399 version in partnership with Lisa, the rapper from K-pop group Blackpink. Beyond the new hardware, Meta announced a slate of software updates. A feature called Dynamic Photos captures multiple images at once, letting users choose different frames in the companion smartphone app. Users can also set the glasses to capture photos and videos in landscape orientation. Later in 2026, Meta glasses will support 360-degree spatial audio recording with Dolby Atmos. That enables more immersive sound when played back. In a privacy-related move, the company is working to process more data on the glasses themselves rather than pushing it to the cloud. Meta also introduced a hearing aid feature cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, similar to what's available on Apple Inc.'s AirPods Pro. Meta will charge $150 to activate the feature, or include it when it rolls out later this year as part of a Meta One subscription. The company is also rolling out several other features for its display model, which launched in the U.S. last year at $799, though there's no new version of the hardware. Changes include a new on-glasses Explore app that helps locate third-party web-driven software for the glasses. The device can now show turn-by-turn navigation for cycling and public transit routes on the display, along with more human-sounding voice options. Other features include on-glasses photo editing, expanded phone notification support and calendar event management. The display glasses are meant to be a stepping stone to eventual full augmented reality (AR) glasses, which can overlay digital information, images and video onto the real world in both lenses. Meta had previously planned to launch such a device next year, a target set when it introduced a prototype of its AR glasses called Orion. But Bosworth wouldn't commit to that timeline. He said his team called Reality Labs has what he called "carriers" that could potentially launch next year, but he won't decide to ship until the device "reaches a point of maturity." He said "there's certainly a team here that would absolutely say yes to AR glasses in 2027," but he wouldn't commit. "We have to make a lot of trade-offs," Bosworth said. Either way, the company is "still committed to full AR," he said, which will eventually happen.