Meta introduces camera-free AI glasses

Meta says the camera-free glasses will be lighter and have up to 12 hours battery life. Confirming earlier reports, Meta announced its first pair of camera-free AI glasses, the clunkily named Ray-Ban Meta Audio, at its Connect 2026 conference on Wednesday. Designed to combat criticism around the more malicious use cases for AI glasses, which saw them nicknamed “pervert glasses” by some, the new devices will be audio-only, offering the ability to listen to music and podcasts, take calls, translate speech, and communicate with Meta’s AI assistant, Muse. The glasses are designed by Meta’s partner in its AI hardware efforts, EssilorLuxottica, and will start at $349. While Meta today offers a range of AI glasses in a variety of styles, colors, and capabilities, the audio-only glasses could help the brand recover from some of the reputational damage after critics pointed out how people, often men, were using AI glasses to record videos without subjects’ consent.

Meta attempted to mitigate this issue with an update that would disable the camera if the LED light that indicated the glasses were recording was ever tampered with. However, the creepiness factor remained. This latest device could prove to be more popular for that reason, while also providing an answer to something like Apple’s Siri-powered AirPods. “Once you get used to high quality audio, it’s