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Meta's new smart glasses promise to help you ditch your smartphone
Like previous models, the Meta Ray-Ban Display includes cameras, speakers, and an on-board AI assistant. The new glasses feature an offset display that shows Meta apps like Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook, along with directions and live translations.
At its Meta Connect 2025 keynote, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the Meta Ray-Ban Display, the company's most advanced smart glasses to date. The new product is a significant move in Meta's long-term strategy to shift the consumer market from smartphones to smart glasses, a vision that has absorbed over $70 billion in losses for its Reality Labs division since 2020.
A New Way to Interact: The Neural Band
The most innovative feature of the new glasses is the accompanying Meta Neural Band, a wristband that uses surface electromyography (sEMG) to interpret signals from the brain to the hand. This technology allows users to control the glasses and perform tasks, such as writing text messages, with hand gestures alone, without needing to speak aloud. Zuckerberg demonstrated writing at a speed of about 30 words per minute, approaching the average texting speed on a smartphone.
Like previous models, the Meta Ray-Ban Display includes cameras, speakers, and an on-board AI assistant. The new glasses feature an offset display that shows Meta apps like Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook, along with directions and live translations.
The focus on a silent, gesture-based interface addresses a major hurdle for smart glasses: the awkwardness of using voice commands in public. While other devices like the Apple Watch offer limited non-verbal input, the Neural Band's sEMG technology promises a more natural and efficient alternative.
Zuckerberg framed the glasses as a solution to the social disconnect caused by smartphones. "The promise of glasses is to preserve this sense of presence that you have with other people," he said. He positioned the technology as a way to enhance real-world interactions rather than distract from them, even as the company's core business relies on attention-demanding apps.
While competitors like Apple and Google are also exploring the smart glasses market, the Meta Ray-Ban Display's combination of advanced display technology and the unique Neural Band represents a bold wager on a new paradigm for personal technology. Whether consumers will embrace the new form factor and make the cultural shift from the "sleek aluminum rectangle" in their pocket remains to be seen.
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