Meta used its annual Connect conference to lay out the fullest picture yet of its AI hardware ambitions, unveiling a $1,299 pair of VR glasses, a keychain-sized wearable for its Muse AI agent, and its first camera-free AI glasses — a three-device lineup designed to put the company's assistant on every screen and surface its users touch.
The announcements, made Wednesday by CEO Mark Zuckerberg during the Connect keynote and reported by TechCrunch, CNBC and Reuters, represent Meta's most aggressive hardware swing since the company pivoted from the metaverse to artificial intelligence. Every device in the lineup ships with access to Muse, the personal AI agent Meta launched earlier this year that can handle tasks like email, travel planning and payments.
Meta VR Glasses: a headset that looks like eyewear
The headline product is a device Meta is simply calling Meta VR Glasses, priced at $1,299.99 and due next spring. Zuckerberg framed the launch as the payoff of the company's decision, made years ago, to build fewer VR devices until it found a real breakthrough.
"This is a breakthrough," Zuckerberg said on stage, arguing that while most people believe augmented reality glasses with holograms are the future, far fewer want to wear a bulky headset. "We have built a new kind of VR device that delivers the same magical feeling of presence and immersion with high-resolution displays and views of the world around you in a form factor that is a pair of glasses for the first time."
The glasses weigh five times less than the Meta Quest 3, according to Meta, with a magnesium alloy frame powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon Reality Elite processor. Rather than carrying the battery onboard, the glasses rely on a separate computing puck that doubles as the power pack and can slip into a pocket.
Inside the lenses, micro-OLED panels deliver what Meta calls a 5K Infinite Display at 37 pixels per degree, with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos support. The company is positioning the device first as an entertainment machine — it is billing the glasses as the "first IMAX Enhanced certified VR device ever," pitched as one of the only ways to watch films in IMAX's expanded aspect ratio.
A Disney partnership gives the launch a content backbone: starting in November, Disney+ subscribers will be able to stream select films, including certain Marvel titles, in 3D, with surroundings that Meta says can be "transformed with immersive environments, dynamic effects, stunning 3D visuals, and spatial audio." Meta AI is built in, so users can start a movie by voice, and hand gestures work as a control scheme.
Muse Charm: an AI agent on a keychain
The most unusual reveal came in a "one more thing" moment: the Muse Charm, a palm-sized totem that carries the full Muse agent and can hang from a keychain or ride in a pocket. The device is not ready to ship — Zuckerberg said the team still has to "finalize laying out the components" — but he promised it would be "ready to ship in time for the holidays in December."
The Charm has a tiny screen that displays Jolly, the cute digital avatar that now embodies the Muse agent, and users can talk to the device to trigger tasks. Activation works through a fingerprint sensor in the corner.
"We packed the whole Muse experience, including the whole real-time voice and avatar stack, into something that fits on a keychain and is always available to talk to," Zuckerberg said. "If you're not wearing glasses, this is going to be by far the fastest way to talk to your Muse."
TechCrunch noted the quasi-Tamagotchi feel of the gadget — a lightweight, personality-filled companion that keeps users permanently tethered to Meta's software, and a relatively low-stakes way for the company to experiment with AI wearables.
Ray-Ban Meta Audio: the camera-free answer to recording backlash
Meta also announced its first camera-free AI glasses, the Ray-Ban Meta Audio, starting at $349 and designed with partner EssilorLuxottica. The move follows sustained criticism of camera-equipped smart glasses, which critics noted were being used by some wearers to record people without consent. Meta previously added a safeguard that disables the camera if the recording LED is tampered with, but the discomfort around covert recording has persisted.
"Once you get used to high quality audio, it's just a thing that you want all the time," Zuckerberg said during the keynote, adding that Meta realized it could design an entirely new category of glasses around audio alone.
Without cameras to house, the Ray-Ban Meta Audio is slimmer than Meta's other models and weighs just 43 grams, with up to 12 hours of battery life — 48 hours with the charging case. The glasses come in 23 color and lens combinations across two new styles: a retro-inspired Clubmaster and the rectangle-shaped Burbank, and can be ordered with prescription lenses. The design positions them as a direct answer to Apple's Siri-powered AirPods, TechCrunch observed.
Gen 3 camera glasses and a privacy pitch
For buyers who still want a camera, Meta announced the Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 3), which adds a 12 MP sensor supporting 3K Ultra HD video, a six-microphone array and up to nine hours of battery life, in new Aviator and cat-eye Zena styles alongside the classic Wayfarer. Meta also teased coming features across the glasses line, including Dolby Atmos Capture, hearing enhancements for users with hearing loss, and something it calls "private processing," which the company claims will prevent Meta from seeing user data.
That privacy pledge will face scrutiny. The Los Angeles Times reported that Meta's new wearables bring "fresh privacy concerns" even as the company courts mainstream buyers, and Axios reported that Zuckerberg predicts Muse will become a "personal superintelligence" for billions of people.
Still, the Connect lineup makes Meta's strategy plain: put an always-available AI agent on the face, in the pocket and, eventually, everywhere a screen could be. Whether consumers want to live inside that web — and whether regulators let it form — is the question the rest of the industry will be watching.
---
Stay Ahead of AIGet the latest AI news, analysis, and breakthroughs — all in one place.
Read more AI news →
