Meta ditches the camera on its newest smart glasses
Walking around Meta Connect 2026, everyone's sporting smart glasses in all sorts of shapes, colors, and sizes. It's a marked difference here, a tech bubble where "pervert glasses" are not a concern.

The Ray-Ban Meta Audio Glasses have no cameras. | Photo by Brett Putman / The Verge
Walking around Meta Connect 2026, everyone's sporting smart glasses in all sorts of shapes, colors, and sizes. It's a marked difference here, a tech bubble where "pervert glasses" are not a concern.
Outside Connect, the public backlash against wearable surveillance tech - a catchall term that encompasses not just smart glasses, but also smartwatches and AI pendants - is gaining steam. So it's incredibly curious timing that this year, the company is launching Ray-Ban Meta Audio Glasses: smart glasses infused with Meta AI, but with no camera for recording others.
To hear Meta tell it, that's a coincidence. Audio-only glasses have been years …
Related articles

Muse is coming to Meta smart glasses
Just a couple of weeks after launching Muse, Meta announced that it's "working on" bringing the agent to its smart glasses, including the new glasses it unveiled at Meta Connect.

Meta’s next VR device isn’t a headset — it’s glasses
Meta is launching new VR hardware: a pair of glasses.

Meta Connect 2026: The 7 biggest announcements
Meta announced a slate of new wearables during its annual Meta Connect showcase on Wednesday.

Meta is making a standalone Muse AI gadget
Meta is building a dedicated hardware device for its new Muse AI agent.

New turbojet-powered autonomous aircraft packs modular nose for rapid payload swaps
AEVEX Corp. has revealed a new autonomous aircraft designed to bring jet propulsion and modular...

US Army secures giant rare earth magnet deal to build one million military drones
The U.S. Army is turning to a domestic magnet maker for a component that could...