Meta’s second generation of Ray-Ban smart glasses, created in partnership with EssilorLuxottica, comes in a new round of styles, including the Skyler frame, and improves their usability — just in time for sunglasses season.
The improvements to the Ray-Ban glasses and sunglasses include better integration with Apple Music, upgrades to Meta AI, and compatibility with WhatsApp and Messenger, allowing users to stream what they’re seeing from the sunglasses themselves.
The ability to share your view will be completely hands-free with video calling on WhatsApp and Messenger, allowing you to share exactly what you’re seeing in real time. Not having to point a device at whatever you’re looking at definitely brings a new dimension to video calling.
The $329 smart glasses come with a built-in ultra-wide 12 megapixel (MP) camera that is integrated with Meta AI with Vision for augmented reality (AR) functionality. This includes a translation feature, which allows you to simply look at text in a foreign language and see it translated, as well as a landmark identification capability, announced earlier this year and demonstrated by Mark Zuckerberg himself in an Instagram post.
Also: Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses get hands-free Apple Music integration and more
Some practical uses of live view sharing could include showing someone product selections at a supermarket, while a more exciting application could be sharing your epic view on a hike or vacation. To share, just double tap the physical capture button on the glasses, which is possible even if you haven’t linked your WhatsApp account to the Meta View app.
Users can activate the camera to take photos and video with voice commands — like, “Hey Meta, send a photo” — instead of through a touchscreen or visual UI, and harness AI for a seamless, hands-free experience.
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Owners of the Meta Ray-Bans only need to update their glasses in the Meta View app to access the new features, but a blog post also clarified that the new features are rolling out starting April 24, so updates might not be immediately available for all users.