Meta debuts US$349 camera-free Ray-Bans and brings Muse to glasses

META Platforms is expanding its smart-glasses lineup with camera-free models, support for the popular new Muse assistant and a hearing-aid mode.

At its Connect conference on Wednesday (Sep 23), the social media giant unveiled the Ray-Ban Meta Audio, its first pair of glasses without cameras. The company also introduced a third-generation model of its camera-equipped Ray-Ban spectacles and new versions of its more affordable Meta-branded frames.

The new audio-focused glasses give Meta a way to revisit a product category that has sparked outcry over privacy issues. Meta and the broader smart-glasses industry have faced concerns that the devices’ cameras can record people without their knowledge or consent.

In an interview, chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth said the audio-only glasses were added to the company’s product road map about two years ago because audio “remains the most popular feature in the glasses.”

Removing the cameras also allowed Meta to reduce the price and weight while extending battery life, he said.

Bosworth acknowledged that Meta was “a little bit fortunate” to already have an audio-only product in development, given the “privacy narrative playing out around glasses globally.”

Still, he said the public debate contrasts with what the company is seeing in customer usage, adoption, sales and engagement — all of which are on “a very, very positive trend.”

“My lived experience walking around with them has been people pretty enthusiastic about the product,” Bosworth said. “Then there’s an extremely online concern. I’m not saying it’s not a real concern. We’ve got to take it seriously, and we do take it seriously.”

Meta has made privacy a central part of its messaging around the glasses from the outset, he added. A light turns on to let people know when the glasses are taking a photo or video, for instance. 

“We’ve been expecting this,” Bosworth said. “It’s not like we just recently started taking it seriously.”

The camera-free glasses start at US$349 and are scheduled to ship from Oct 3. They will be available in Ray-Ban’s rectangular Burbank frame and the classic Clubmaster style. In a demonstration, they felt no thicker or heavier than conventional Ray-Ban glasses. 

The camera-free models also offer as much as 12 hours of battery life on a single charge. That contrasts with the third-generation Ray-Ban Meta glasses that now offer nine hours, up from eight in the previous model. That product’s frames are slimmer than their predecessor’s, but remain bigger than the audio-only spectacles. 

The third-generation models also include a new “action button” that can be programmed to perform specific tasks, such as launching the Muse voice assistant.

The camera-equipped models will be offered in three designs: the classic Aviator, the long-running Wayfarer and a new cat-eye frame called Zena.

They also feature an upgraded microphone system designed to reduce background noise during calls, along with adjustable temple tips for a more comfortable fit.

The third-generation Ray-Bans start at US$449, up from the second-generation model’s current starting price of US$379. Bosworth attributed the increase primarily to inflation and shortages of components, though the industry’s widespread memory constraints were less of a factor.

Still, he said Meta must account for the possibility of higher memory costs when setting prices for new products. “You have to plan for the volatility around that,” Bosworth said, adding that the disruption could persist for “two, three or maybe four years.”

As part of the changes, Meta plans to bring its display-equipped glasses to international markets and sell them online for the first time.

The company is also introducing fresh styles and colours for the lower-priced self-branded glasses it launched in June. And there will be a new US$249 version, down from the prior US$299 price.

The company plans to bring the line to additional markets, including Singapore and South Korea, and will offer a US$399 version in partnership with Lisa, the rapper from K-pop group Blackpink.

Alongside the new hardware, Meta announced a range of software updates. A feature called Dynamic Photos captures multiple images at once, allowing users to select a different frame in the companion smartphone app. Users can also set their glasses to shoot photo and video in the horizontal orientation.

Later in 2026, Meta’s glasses will gain support for 360-degree spatial audio recording in Dolby Atmos. That enables more immersive sound during playback. And in a privacy-related move, the company is working to handle more data processing on its glasses themselves, rather than pushing data to the cloud.

Meta has also introduced a hearing-aid feature cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration, similar to the capability available on Apple’s AirPods Pro. Meta will charge US$150 to activate the feature or include it when it launches later this year as part of a Meta One subscription.

The company is rolling out several other features for its model with a display, which launched last year in the US for US$799, though there isn’t a new version of the hardware. The changes include a new on-glasses Explore app that helps locate third-party web-powered glasses software. 

The devices now show turn-by-turn directions in the screen for both cycling and public transit routes, while including a more humanlike voice option. Other features include in-glasses photo editing, expanded support for phone notifications, and the management of calendar events. 

The display glasses are meant as a stepping stone to eventual full augmented reality glasses, which can superimpose digital information, images and video over the real world in both lenses. Meta had previously aimed to introduce such a device next year, a target set when it introduced prototype AR glasses dubbed Orion. But Bosworth wouldn’t commit to that timeline. 

He said that his group, known as Reality Labs, has what he called a “vehicle” to a possible launch next year, but that he won’t decide on a release until the device is “at a point of maturity.” He said “there definitely exists a team here who says absolutely yes” to AR glasses in 2027, but he won’t commit to it.

“There’s a lot of trade-offs we have to make decisions on,” Bosworth said.

Regardless, the company is “still working on full AR,” he said, and it will happen eventually. BLOOMBERG