Meta launches its new smart glasses with built-in display

Meta Platforms on Wednesday launched its first consumer-ready smart glasses with a built-in display, seeking to extend the momentum of its Ray-Ban line, one of the early consumer hits of the artificial intelligence era.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed off what he called the Meta Ray-Ban Display, though some demonstrations of the new technology didn't go as planned; for example, a presentation of the glasses didn't happen.

"I don't know what to tell you," Zuckerberg said. "I keep messing everything up." The audience applauded.

The glasses feature a small digital display on the right lens for basic functions like notifications. They start at $799 and will be available in stores on September 30.

The launch at Meta's annual Connect conference for developers, held at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, is its latest attempt to catch up in the high-stakes AI race.

While the social media giant has been at the forefront of smartglasses development, it lags behind rivals like OpenAI and Alphabet's Google in launching advanced artificial intelligence models.

To catch up, Zuckerberg launched a talent war in Silicon Valley to poach engineers from rivals and promised to spend tens of billions of dollars on cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips.

He has also touted smart glasses as the ideal device for superintelligence (a concept in which AI surpasses human intelligence in every possible way) because they serve as a personal, always-on interface that can see, hear, and interact with the world through the user's perspective.

With that vision in mind, Meta also unveiled a new pair of Oakley Vanguard glasses on Wednesday, aimed at athletes and priced at $499. The device integrates with fitness platforms like Garmin and Strava to provide real-time training stats and post-workout summaries, and offers nine hours of battery life. It will be available starting October 21.

It updated its Ray-Ban line, now offering nearly double the battery life of the previous generation and a better camera for $379 , up from the previous generation's $299. All devices retain existing features, such as Meta's AI assistant, cameras, hands-free control, and live streaming to the company's social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram .

The new headset comes as Meta faces public scrutiny over its handling of child safety on its social media platforms. Reuters reported in August that Meta's chatbots engaged children in provocative conversations about sex and race, while whistleblowers claimed earlier this month that researchers were told not to study the harmful effects of virtual reality on children. While analysts don't expect Celeste to see strong sales, they believe it could be a step toward the planned 2027 launch of Meta's "Orion" prototype, unveiled last year and described by Zuckerberg as "a time machine to the future."

“It wasn’t long ago that consumers were introduced to AI in eyewear, and in recent quarters, brands have also begun including displays, enabling new use cases,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers.

However, consumer awareness and availability of AI glasses with displays remain limited. This will change as Meta, Google, and other companies launch products over the next 18 months.

IDC forecasts that worldwide shipments of augmented reality/virtual reality (AR) glasses and screenless smart glasses will increase 39.2% in 2025, reaching 14.3 million units. Meta will drive much of this growth thanks to demand for the Ray-Ban glasses it manufactures with EssilorLuxottica.