Is the future of the internet and social on your eyes? Meta thinks so, and it has three pairs of wearables on the way, one of which is out now.
Your phone may well be your everything, but in the next few years, it’s entirely possible that could change. It is now a possibility that for many of us, it could be something a little closer to our faces instead as eyewear becomes the device we turn to when it comes time to interact with the online world.
The idea of smart and connected eyewear isn’t a new thing.
You might recall Google Glass a little over a decade ago as an accessory you could wear to connect Google’s apps with your surroundings. It didn’t quite take off, and is now more a neat relic than a piece of usable technology, but the idea of smart eyewear still exists, and it’s being pushed as the next generation way to connect to the digital world.
This week at Meta Connect 2025, the company behind Facebook talked up what we can expect from its first glasses with a built-in screen, as well as a couple of new pairs that turn regular sunglasses into AI glasses, as well as the things they can do.
A digital future you can see
Easily one of the more interesting announcements to end the year with, Meta has shown what its vision of connected eyewear can be in the Meta Ray-Ban Display, a pair of glasses feature a small heads-up display in one lens on the right eye.
The screen is small, showing a small amount of screen just big enough to look at text messages or look at a short video, thrown off to the side so as not to disrupt your view. Meta says it uses a custom engine to deliver enough brightness to work indoors and outdoors, and it goes beyond simply being a heads-up display.
Instead of simply being a screen, you’ll control the display with a the Meta Neural Band, a wrist-bound band that tracks small and subtle hand gestures, allowing you to walk around without a phone in your hand and control things from your hand.
The glasses will use cameras to track what you’re seeing, and connect that with AI and the internet, providing recipes for things you see, directions for where. you need to go, or even subtitles for life.
Regular eyewear made smart(er)
While the idea of “subtitles for life” sounds like something everyone needs to understand everything that little bit better, there will be glasses without screens on the way, which may as well just be eyewear, but with cameras, speakers, a microphone, and a connection to your phone.
That’s an area Meta has played with in its first-gen Facebook Ray-Ban glasses, and in the follow-up when it became Meta, not to mention the Oakley Meta HSTN edition announced earlier in the year.
This year, both the Oakley Meta Vanguard and the Ray-Ban Meta will be on shelves, providing more battery life, 3K video recording, and changes to features for the range.
The Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 will offer up to twice the battery life of its predecessor, covering up to eight hours, with a feature called “conversation focus” that will use speakers to amplify the voice of someone you’re talking to.
Meanwhile, the Oakley Meta Vanguard will provide up to nine hours of battery life, and offer a wider view, 3K video, and support for hyperlapse and slow-motion video capture, making them more like a GoPro, but from your eyes.
Australian availability
Both will be coming to Australia, too, with the Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 glasses available now from $599 in three styles (including a neat transparent edition), while the Oakley Meta Vanguard are on the cards for Australia from $789 in late-October.
And as for the futuristic Meta Ray-Ban Display, there’s no word on if or when Australia will get a pair. Meanwhile, the US will get the band from the end of this month, priced at $799 in the USD.
