Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a new pair of camera-free smart glasses on Wednesday, September 23, positioning them as a gateway to the company’s Muse artificial intelligence assistant — even as controversy swirls around its earlier models capable of filming bystanders without their knowledge.
Speaking at the annual Meta Connect conference at the company’s Menlo Park headquarters in California, Zuckerberg framed the decision in purely aesthetic terms. “Without cameras, it opens up a lot of new design possibilities,” he said, praising the audio glasses as “lighter and thinner” with “the longest battery life” in the lineup. He made no mention of the criticism directed at the camera-equipped versions.
Price and Availability
Branded as Ray-Ban Meta Audio, the camera-free glasses will be available in the United States starting October 13, priced at $350.
Privacy Concerns Loom Over Camera Models
Meta holds nearly 84% of the smart glasses market, with 8.7 million pairs sold worldwide in 2025 according to research firm Omdia — a figure that still pales in comparison to the more than one billion smartphones sold globally. But its camera-equipped models have drawn sharp criticism, particularly in Europe. French authorities are investigating videos of women filmed without their consent on public streets, and Oslo has banned the glasses from its schools.
Meta continues to sell camera-equipped glasses, including a new generation of Ray-Ban Meta presented on Wednesday. Asked by AFP about the criticism, Vishal Shah, Meta’s vice president of AI products, insisted that the indicator light signaling recording on these models has simply been made “more explicit” over time. “It’s not a change in our position,” he said.
Muse AI: The Centerpiece of Meta’s Strategy
The primary selling point of the Ray-Ban Meta Audio remains its connection to Muse, Meta’s multitasking AI assistant. It will arrive on the glasses “in the coming weeks,” Zuckerberg announced. Launched in early September and capable of booking trips or making purchases on behalf of users, Muse is “the centerpiece” of the strategy for the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, according to its CEO — who describes glasses as “the only format that lets your Muse see what you see, hear what you hear.”
Meta has invested tens of billions in AI, though those investments have so far yielded limited results, with its models disappointing compared to those from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google. But Muse became the most-downloaded free app on Apple’s U.S. App Store in September, surpassing ChatGPT and delighting investors: the stock gained more than 11% on Monday.
A Strategic Pivot Away From the Metaverse
Zuckerberg acknowledged that the company has “redirected” its efforts toward “personal superintelligence,” at the expense of the metaverse — its previous major bet. The company plans to eventually profit from Muse by taking “a small commission on transactions” carried out by the agent, Zuckerberg explained.
These various bets are intended to provide growth drivers beyond advertising, which accounts for nearly all of Meta’s revenue and is funding up to $145 billion in investments this year, primarily in AI. While its core social media business remains highly profitable, the group is nonetheless surrounded by legal proceedings. In late August, it reached agreements worth more than $18 billion with nearly all U.S. states to restrict teenagers’ use of Facebook and Instagram, but thousands of complaints remain pending.
Growing Competition in the Smart Glasses Space
Competitors are ramping up their efforts. Snap launched glasses in August priced above $2,000 that overlay digital images onto the real world. Google and Samsung are expected to follow this fall, and OpenAI is planning a screen-free speaker centered on ChatGPT for 2027.
