At the company’s biggest event, Meta Connect 2025, Mark Zuckerberg announced three new smart glasses, the second generation Ray-Ban Meta, the Metaray-Ban Display and Wristband Controller, and the Oakley Metavan Guard.
According to Meta, it has sold two million first-generation Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, and earlier this year Meta unveiled its latest AI-powered smart glasses at Oakley, designed for athletes. Silicon Valley has a big leaning towards AI wearables, and Meta appears to be one of the fee-driven companies.
As we are looking to regain our footing in AI racing and sell more hardware, we have taken a lot of risks at Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Connect 2025 Keynote. Overall, Meta has shown some very impressive technologies. The metalneural band, the wristband controller that comes with the Metaray-Ban display, is a particularly highlight.
Still, with a twist reminiscent of HBO’s “Silicon Valley,” the Zuckerberg demonstration of Ray-Banmeta’s AI feature failed. Oops!
While sharing a live video feed of Jack Man Kuso, creator of culinary content on Meta HQ, Zuckerberg asked the chef to show how his Ray-Ban Meta glass could help to thrive on Korean-style steak sauce.
“I love the setup with soy sauce and other ingredients. How can I help?” asked Chipper Meta AI’s voice.
Mancuso requested recipes for Korean-style steak sauce, and the AI voice began listing the ingredients he needed. However, Mancuso knows that the demo needs to be kept concise, so he interrupts and asks, “What do you do first?”
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After a moment of silence that dragged me a little too long, Mancuso repeated, “What do you do first?”
“You’ve already combined the basic ingredients, so you’ll grate the pears and add them to the sauce,” AI said. However, he hadn’t started making recipes, so he hadn’t even combined the basic ingredients yet, so it’s a question of what to do first.
Mancuso asked the same question again, and AI gave the same answer. The audience laughed.
“I think Wi-Fi is a mess – go back to you, Mark!” Mankuso said.
“What do you know? It’s all good. The whole irony is that you spend years making technology and the Wi-Fi of the day catches you,” Zuckerberg said. “Anyway, I’ll go and check out what he’s made later.”
The whole interaction was a bit troubling, especially as this issue didn’t seem to be on Wi-Fi. But even when things are going along with plans, these presentations can feel a bit of a hokey feeling… when Zuckerberg and Diplo literally come across the sunset together, wearing Meta Oakley vanguards, and Zuckerberg and Diplo literally come across the sunset together. It had to be a busy day for Mark, so maybe he needed an excuse to build cardio on his schedule.
Meta has announced the second generation of Ray-Ban Meta Glass, which debuted in 2023. This spray-up model doubles the battery life of its predecessor and currently features up to 8 hours of mixed use. The second generation glasses also support Ultra HD 3K video recording. The company is twice as sharp as the last model.
Meta’s smart glasses have gained several new features in the second generation of Ray-Ban Meta, including the conversation focus available in Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley-Ban Meta HSTN glasses.
“If you’re going to eat at a hot new restaurant, commute by train, or catch the latest set of your favorite DJs, Conversation Focus uses open-ear speakers in AI glasses to amplify the voices of those who are talking,” Meta said in a press release.
The conversation hasn’t been focused yet, so it’s not certain that it will help you out on the next night.
A live AI feature is also underway where Meta fails to properly demo on stage. However, it is very energy intensive and can only be used for about 1-2 hours.
“As we optimize our batteries and energy efficiency, Meta AI will move from what we use wake words to encourage our always available assistants,” the company said.
The second generation Ray-Ban Meta Glasses cost $379.
The Meta Ray-Ban Display Smart Glasses are the most impressive glasses Meta has ever announced, featuring apps, alerts and a built-in display in the direction of the right lens. However, what sets this pair of smart glasses stand out is the accompanying wristband controller, the metalneural band.
This wristband allows Meta to show off a bit of what he has spent so much time (and money) in the reality lab department.
Visually, the metaleneural band looks like a Fitbit without a screen. It is equipped with a surface electromyogram (SEMG), which can be picked up with fine hand gestures and small movements. This is much more refined than the wrist gestures on the Apple Watch. Users can write out text messages by holding their fingers together, as if they were “writing” text by grabbing a pen. This means you can see a WhatsApp message reaching the right eyeglass lens, and you will answer by “writing” the response.
For now, Glasses supports meta apps, but the company will need to support a variety of apps in the future to get the type of adoption they are looking for. Like Apple and Google, Meta bets that smart glasses can cut the market share of smartphones in the future, but enforcing such a massive cultural change would be a major challenge.
The Metaray-Ban display that comes with the Metaneural Band will be released on September 30th for $799.
Because of the bearishness between us, it seems difficult to imagine wearing smart glasses handwritten in the air and texting. However, designed for athletes, Oakley Meta Vanguard Smart Glasses offers the most consistent use cases for this type of technology.
Bikers, trail runners and skiers can film adventures without pulling out their phones. The outdoor speakers on glasses can also play music during workouts and link to apps like Strava and Garmin to relay statistics. Like other new glasses, the Vanguard model is AI-enabled.
Unlike other models of Meta Smart Glasses, the Oakley Metavanguard only has one unified front lens with a camera, rather than two lenses on either side with a camera. This is a design with more technical meaning and can be pulled out with athletic eyewear, but not eyeglasses (prove me wrong). The new glasses can capture video at resolutions of up to 3k and feature a 12 megapixel camera with a 122-degree wide-angle lens.
The glasses have an IP67 dust and water resistance rating for use during intense training. According to Meta, the glasses wraparound design features Oakley Prism lens technology, designed to block the sun, wind and dust.
Unless you’re an Ultra Marathon Runner, these glasses will continue easily throughout your entire workout. Glasses can stay with continuous music playback for 9 or 6 hours. However, the charging case that comes with the glasses can provide an additional 36 hours of charging on the go. Meta claims that the charging case can quickly earn a glass to 50% charging in 20 minutes.
The Oakley Meta Vanguard Glasses will be on sale for $499 and will be on sale October 21st.
On the VR side, Meta did not release a new quest headset as part of this year’s Connect. Although meetings and companies are named after Metaverse, you only learn about a small number of VR updates, such as HyperScape, which allows developers and creators to build light-elector spaces in virtual reality.
Meta is reportedly developing an ultra-lightweight VR headset for startup by the end of 2026, so we know it will be possible at the next MetaConnect event.
