Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 1)

Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 1) are the camera and audio AI glasses that Meta Platforms and EssilorLuxottica launched in 2023 as the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, styled "Ray-Ban | Meta". First shown at Meta Connect on 27 September 2023, they went on sale on 17 October 2023 from $299 ^[1][2]. They replaced Ray-Ban Stories with a 12 MP ultra-wide camera, five microphones, livestreaming to Facebook and Instagram and a Qualcomm Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 processor ^[1], and EssilorLuxottica called them the first eyewear with Meta AI built in ^[2]. The assistant began as a US-only voice beta; later updates let it answer questions about what the camera sees (for all US and Canadian owners from April 2024), hold continuous "Live AI" sessions and translate conversations (in Early Access from December 2024, more widely from May 2025) ^[3][4][5]. Android Central reported that Meta's 2026 move to its Muse Spark model covered Gen 1 as well as Gen 2 ^[33].

Meta has called the model "Gen 1" since Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) arrived on 17 September 2025, and kept selling it at a discount ^[6][7]. By February 2025, about 2 million pairs had been sold, according to EssilorLuxottica's chief executive ^[8]. The product family is covered in Meta Ray-Ban AI Glasses.

Announcement and release

Pre-orders opened on meta.com and ray-ban.com during the Connect announcement, and online and in-store sales began on 17 October ^[1]. Meta said it had redesigned the product "from the ground up" after listening to owners of the first generation, aiming to improve media quality and comfort ^[1]. The glasses launched in 15 countries, sold by Ray-Ban, Meta and EssilorLuxottica chains such as LensCrafters and Sunglass Hut ^[2]. Meta later described them as its "second-generation smart glasses", counting Stories as the first ^[1][3].

Design and frame styles

Two Ray-Ban frames were offered at launch: the Wayfarer, in standard and large sizes, and the Headliner, a new style that Meta gave a "more retro look" and The Verge described as rounder ^[1][16]. Both came in Matte Black and Shiny Black, Meta added three transparent colors named Jeans, Rebel Black and Caramel, and the frames could take prescription, sun, clear, polarized or Transitions lenses ^[1][2]. Meta cited more than 150 frame and lens combinations on Ray-Ban's Remix configurator ^[1]. It said the frames were lighter and slimmer than before, and the published weights ranged from 48.6 g for the Wayfarer to 50.8 g for the Wayfarer Large ^[1][9]. Engadget's Karissa Bell noted that the glasses now charged through the nosepiece and switched on when taken out of their slimmer case, so the Stories power switch was gone ^[10].

Hardware

The glasses run on Qualcomm's Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1, which Meta said improved photo and video processing and compute speed ^[1]. Qualcomm's product brief for the chip lists dual 14-bit image signal processors, a Hexagon neural processing unit and a separate sensing hub with a micro NPU for audio and sensors ^[14]. The camera sits in front of the left hinge and shoots only in portrait orientation ^[15]. Clips were limited to 60 seconds at launch, and the v6 software update of June 2024 raised the maximum to three minutes ^[1][4]. Audio was the other main upgrade. Meta fitted custom speakers with extended bass and more directional sound ^[1], which Engadget reported were 50% louder than before, and five microphones, one of them in the nosepiece, that record "immersive" audio ^[1][10]. Meta rated the battery at up to four hours of mixed use ^[9][10], and The Verge reported its estimate as four to six hours of active use ^[16]; the case holds up to eight more charges, for 36 hours in total ^[1][16]. VR & AR Wiki's Ray-Ban Meta article lists the full hardware specifications.

Meta AI on the glasses

A voice beta at launch

Meta introduced Meta AI on the same day as the glasses, as an assistant for WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram that was "coming soon" to Ray-Ban Meta and Quest 3. The company said it was "powered by a custom model that leverages technology from Llama 2 and our latest large language model (LLM) research", referring to its own Llama family of models ^[18]. On the glasses the wearer says "Hey Meta" to ask questions, get creative suggestions and control features hands-free, and Meta said that "Meta AI features will be available in the US in beta only at launch" ^[1].

Reviewers found the assistant limited. Bell reported that it could not give real-time information beyond the time and the weather, that its knowledge stopped at December 2022 and that it sometimes made up answers that sounded real ^[10]. The Verge's Victoria Song found that it sounded natural but "can't do a whole lot of stuff yet" and took "a hot second" to process commands; she mostly used voice to take photos and videos and to hear and send messages ^[15]. Real-time answers arrived on 12 December 2023, when Meta began rolling out information retrieval "powered in part by Bing" to US owners in phases ^[19].

Look and ask

The same December 2023 update opened an Early Access program, joined through the Meta View app, for US owners to test multimodal features. Meta said the glasses would now "understand what you're seeing using the built-in camera", so a wearer could ask for a caption for a photo taken on a hike or a description of an object in their hand, and it warned that the features "may not always get it right" ^[19]. The feature, called "Look and ask", worked from a photo taken by the glasses: Meta AI answered questions about what the wearer was looking at or about the last photo they had taken ^[4][20].

On 23 April 2024 Meta moved the capability, which it called Meta AI with Vision, out of Early Access to all Ray-Ban Meta glasses in the US and Canada, still as a beta ^[3]. Meta's examples included translating a French menu or an Italian sign and naming a houseplant ^[3][4]. Later in 2024, follow-up requests without repeating "Hey Meta" reached all owners (July) and the need to say "look and" was dropped (November, in English in the US, Canada and Australia), after Early Access trials ^[4][12]. Meta's engineering blog describes the feature as multimodal AI that lets the glasses "see what the wearer is seeing", and credits a research team whose work includes AnyMAL, a model that can reason over text, audio, video and IMU motion-sensor data ^[21].

Live AI and live translation

At Connect on 25 September 2024 Meta previewed video input for Meta AI, giving "continuous real-time help" such as answering questions about landmarks on a walk, and real-time machine translation of speech, in which a wearer talking with someone speaking Spanish, French or Italian hears English through the speakers ^[12]. Both reached Early Access members in the US and Canada in the v11 update of 16 December 2024 ^[5]. During a Live AI session "Meta AI can see what you see continuously", and the wearer can ask questions without saying "Hey Meta"; Meta said that "eventually live AI will, at the right moment, give useful suggestions even before you ask" ^[5]. Live translation worked between English and Spanish, French or Italian, with the wearer hearing translations through the glasses and the other person reading the replies in the phone app ^[4][5]. After testing both, Song found them intriguing but "not quite ready for primetime", The Verge reported in February 2025 ^[8].

Live translation left Early Access in late April 2025, when EssilorLuxottica said it was rolling out to all markets ^[13]. The v15 release notes of 14 May 2025 describe it as "now available to everyone" in English, French, Italian and Spanish, and Meta said it works in airplane mode once a language pack has been downloaded ^[4][22]. Live AI began rolling out in English to owners in the US and Canada in the same update ^[4].

Accessibility

Meta announced a partnership with Be My Eyes, which connects blind and low-vision people with sighted volunteers, at Connect 2024 ^[12]. From December 2024 a wearer could say "Hey Meta, call a volunteer on Be My Eyes" to start a hands-free video call in which the volunteer sees through the glasses' camera, in English in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and Ireland ^[4]. A "detailed responses" setting added in June 2025 makes Meta AI describe the scene in front of the wearer in more detail, for users in the US and Canada ^[4].

Countries and languages

Meta AI reached markets in stages, with visual questions usually following the voice assistant ^[4]:

Software timeline

Meta delivers features through numbered software updates documented in its release notes. Until Gen 2 launched, the notes for "Ray-Ban Meta" glasses applied to Gen 1 ^[4][6].

Updates after Gen 2

From July 2025 the release notes also covered the Oakley Meta line, and after Gen 2 launched they usually did not say which Ray-Ban generations received a feature ^[4]. Conversation focus, which amplifies the voice of the person in front of the wearer, began rolling out in Early Access in the US and Canada on 16 December 2025 for "Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta HSTN", with no generation named ^[24]. Meta's help page lists the models that lack it (Ray-Ban Meta Optics, Meta Glasses and Meta Ray-Ban Display) without including Gen 1, and says it "is not a hearing aid or medical device" ^[25]. Where Meta did name models, Gen 1 was sometimes left out: Early Access autocapture in May 2026 was limited to Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2), Oakley Meta HSTN and Oakley Meta Vanguard ^[4]. The v26 notes of 29 June 2026, which introduced Muse Spark as "Next-gen Meta AI on your glasses", cover "Ray-Ban Meta, Oakley Meta and Meta Glasses" without naming generations ^[4]. In May 2026 Android Central reported that Muse Spark was coming to both Gen 1 and Gen 2, citing a Meta post that said it would roll out gradually to Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta glasses in the US and Canada over the following weeks ^[33].

Processing and data

Qualcomm markets the AR1 Gen 1 as delivering "powerful on-glass AI", including image and audio enhancement, visual search and real-time translation ^[14]. Counterpoint Research, which counts Ray-Ban Meta as the first AI smart glasses on the market because their chip includes a neural processing unit, described them as combining on-device AI algorithms, smartphone-based edge AI and Meta's Llama models ^[26]. It expects most AI work in glasses of this kind, such as running large models, to be handled in the cloud or on a connected phone, with on-device AI limited mainly to basic tasks such as noise reduction, voice assistant activation and simple commands ^[26]. Images used for visual questions are shared with Meta AI: in October 2024 Meta told TechCrunch that in places where multimodal AI was offered, then the US and Canada, "images and videos shared with Meta AI may be used to improve it per our Privacy Policy", while photos and videos that a wearer never submits to the AI are not used for training ^[27].

Companion app

The glasses pair with a phone app, called Meta View at launch, which imports captures over a local Wi-Fi network created by the glasses, manages settings, keeps a history of questions asked of Meta AI and can link more than one pair of glasses ^[2][10][15]. Livestreams go only to Instagram Live or Facebook Live, for up to 30 minutes, which Song criticized because streamers could not use TikTok or Twitch ^[2][15]. On 29 April 2025 Meta renamed Meta View the Meta AI app. Media and settings carried over, conversations started on the glasses appear in the app's history, imported photos can be edited by asking Meta AI, and up to seven pairs of glasses can be managed. Meta said it was using Llama 4 in the app to make responses "more personal, relevant, and conversational" ^[17].

Pricing and availability

The US starting price was $299, the same as Stories ^[1][9], and EssilorLuxottica set local suggested entry prices for the other launch markets ^[2]. After Gen 2 launched, Gen 1 stayed on sale at lower prices ^[7]; in October 2026 Meta's US store listed a Gen 1 Skyler at $224 against a $299 list price, with that color and lens combination out of stock ^[28].

Reception and sales

Song, who called herself a smart glasses skeptic, wrote that Meta "hasn't reinvented the category" but had "nailed the execution". She rated the camera as good as a phone from a few years earlier and the calls better than most smart glasses, got five to six hours of battery life with light use, and wrote that "these are a turning point for smart glasses" ^[15]. Bell found that the glasses "still feel a little bit like a novelty", but said the AI made them feel like "a product that's likely to improve rather than a gadget that will start to become obsolete as soon as you buy it" ^[10].

Demand outran supply at first. Meta said in April 2024 that the glasses were "selling out faster than we can make them" ^[3], and in September 2024 that it had "had trouble keeping them on the shelves until recently" ^[12]. On EssilorLuxottica's February 2025 results call, chief executive Francesco Milleri put sales at 2 million pairs, all since the October 2023 launch, and said production capacity would reach 10 million units a year by the end of 2026 ^[8]. Counterpoint Research said global smart glasses shipments grew 156% in 2023 and 210% in 2024, "driven by strong demand for Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses", with Meta taking more than 60% of the market in 2024 ^[26]. The wider market is covered in AI glasses market.

Privacy and controversy

Meta made the capture LED larger than on Stories ^[2], impossible to switch off and pulsing ^[15], and blocked the camera when the LED is covered ^[10]. Song found opinions on the light's visibility mixed, and wrote that no one noticed when she filmed in public ^[15].

At launch the Meta View app stored transcripts of voice commands by default, and stored recordings could go to "trained reviewers"; a Meta spokesperson told Engadget that "at this time" the company did not use the generative models behind its assistants, including those on the glasses, to personalize ads ^[10]. On 29 April 2025 Meta emailed owners that AI features would be on by default and that it would store voice recordings with no option to opt out. Meta's privacy notice for voice services on wearables allows recordings and transcripts to be kept for up to a year, owners who object have to delete recordings one by one, and TechCrunch noted that the glasses store only speech that follows the "Hey Meta" wake word ^[29].

Two incidents showed how the hardware could be misused. In October 2024 two Harvard students, AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio, demonstrated I-XRAY, which combined a pair of Ray-Ban Meta glasses with the PimEyes face search service and other tools to go automatically from a stranger's face to a name, phone number and home address; they said they would not release the code ^[30]. In January 2025 the FBI said the man behind the New Year's truck attack in New Orleans, which killed 14 people, had filmed the French Quarter on 31 October 2024 with Meta's smart glasses (which the Associated Press described as made with Ray-Ban and able to livestream) and wore them, inactive, during the attack; Meta declined to comment ^[31]. Broader debate over camera glasses is covered in smart glasses privacy.

Successor

Meta announced the successor, Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2), on 17 September 2025. It uses the three frames Gen 1 had by then and adds 3K Ultra HD video, and Meta rated it at up to eight hours with typical use, "almost twice the battery life of Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 1)", with 48 more hours from its case. It started at $379 ^[6]. Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 3) followed on 23 September 2026, starting at $449 ^[32].

References

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