These first-of-their-kind AI glasses allow you to make calls, send messages and take photographs, all from the frames on your face<\/a>. Zuckerburg says ten years of research that went into making these \u201cthe next major platform\u201d.<\/p>\n I\u2019m sceptical. Even as someone who\u2019s had a phone<\/a> since the age of six, and will happily scroll for five hours a day on the weekends, I can\u2019t imagine wearing a device on my face.<\/p>\n And previous attempts at smart glasses have failed pretty spectacularly \u2013 remember Google Glasses? First launched in 2014, they were pulled from the market within a year. <\/p>\n Meta have smartly collaborated with Ray-Bans for theirs \u2013 so they do actually look cool. Since being released to the public in 2023, costing from \u00a3299 up to \u00a3379, 2 million pairs have been sold \u2013 though I don\u2019t know anyone who has a pair yet. The Meta Wayfarer glasses I received to review look similar to a normal pair of RayBans \u2013 and include sun protection<\/a> and come in a variety of colours.<\/p>\n They come in a fancy brown leather-look case embedded with Ray-Ban\u2019s logo with a charging port inside. On the outside a glowing green light indicates that they are charged.<\/p>\n The frames are classic Ray-Ban style; the lenses are thick but they are still stylish<\/a>. The cameras, placed on either side of the lenses, are visible but discreet. The lenses, which claim to offer 100 per cent UVA and UVB protection, automatically switch from clear to tinted when you\u2019re outside.<\/p>\n In order to set the glasses up I had to download an app. To take a photograph, you click a button on the side of the glasses, which then appears in the app and can automatically import to your phone\u2019s camera roll<\/a>. However, I found that it\u2019s impossible to tell what\u2019s in the frame when you take a photo as you can\u2019t see it on a screen. When I tried to take an image of my puppy<\/a> sitting on the floor, I was looking at him and clicked the camera button, but the image I produced was mostly the floor.<\/p>\n Other images were better, but the quality is still miles behind what you can get on an iPhone. The next generation of these glasses will reportedly have built in holograms with projected screens<\/a> that allow users to see a photo or even a person in front of them.<\/p>\n The glasses consist of much more than a camera. By saying \u201cHey Meta\u201d you can ask them just about anything, including asking them to take an image or video for you. As I\u2019m on a redecorating hype, I put on my glasses stand in my living room<\/a> and say \u201cHey Meta, how can I improve this room?\u201d. The answer to your question is delivered as a voice reply through tiny speakers in the glasses: \u201cYou can add cushions and throws to add dimension and try adding some greenery or mirrors. You\u2019ll want a lamp.\u201d They were right, I did need all of those things, but it definitely felt strange knowing I was showing my home<\/a> to Meta. Who knows where that information could end up?<\/p>\n You can also use the glasses to make calls, or send texts: \u201cHey Meta, call Pete\u201d, I told them one day, and sure enough we had a conversation <\/a>despite my phone being on the other side of the room.<\/p>\n In the interests of a thorough test-drive, I kept the glasses on most of the time and the next day when I was walking through town, I asked them where my nearest coffee<\/a> shop was. The glasses relayed to me, through speakers only audible to me, the address and opening hours of the four nearest cafes.<\/p>\n They\u2019re obviously very clever, but I began to feel that they made things almost too easy. They render maps obsolete and reduce the likelihood of stumbling upon a new coffee shop by chance. Given how efficient the glasses are at helping users plan a whole itinerary, I can see how easily the spontaneity of life<\/a> might disappear.<\/p>\n Concerns have also been raised about privacy <\/a>\u2013 you could use the glasses to photograph or record people. The cameras do flash so it isn\u2019t so much a secret that you\u2019re doing it but it still feels strange with one click on your face, you could record anyone in the street. If they weren\u2019t directly facing me, they wouldn\u2019t have noticed if I had.<\/p>\n On the plus side, wearing the glasses reduced my screen time<\/a>. I left my phone at home when I went on walks because I knew my glasses could take pictures and make calls for me. I had less need to search the Internet, and instead just asked questions out loud (ignoring the weird looks from passersby).<\/p>\n A downside, although the idea of built-in sun protection<\/a> is great, was that the glasses darkened when sunlight shone into my flat. The same issue occurred when driving which wasn\u2019t always helpful.<\/p>\n My favourite feature was listening to music<\/a> without headphones, but still privately. I could work or walk listening to my playlist, and the volume was easy enough to change by swiping across on the side of the glasses.<\/p>\n As a glasses wearer, I was pleased to note it\u2019s possible to have Meta glasses made to fit your prescription. However, since the pair I was testing was clear glass, I could only wear them with my lenses in. I\u2019d probably need two pairs, one with my prescription, if I wanted to wear them all the time.<\/p>\n Since their initial release, multiple pairs of smart glasses made by other companies have been released for a much lower price tag. Some are as cheap as \u00a320 on TikTok <\/a>shop but most only come with the music function, rather than the camera, the ability to connect to your phone and \u201cHey Meta\u201d feature.<\/p>\n After two weeks of using the glasses the battery<\/a> didn\u2019t need recharging once, because putting them back in the case recharges them automatically.<\/p>\n These frames can make decisions for me, redecorate my home, tell me about finances<\/a>, and make suggestions about what to do each day. I almost feel they\u2019re swallowing my humanity. There\u2019s no doubt, however, that they\u2019re a huge technological leap forward \u2013 but they won\u2019t overtake phones just yet. We\u2019re all too busy scrolling<\/a> through an Instagram feed, something the glasses can\u2019t currently offer.<\/p>\n One day, though, I don\u2019t doubt everybody will be wearing them. I think they\u2019re great \u2013 but almost too great: I\u2019d hate to become so reliant on them that I became incompetent. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Meta glasses are clever but almost feel\u00a0too easy, like the spontaneity of life may be drained away…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,242,1324,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-97889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-features","tag-meta","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Kia-Elise](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/SEI_263388147.jpg\")
The new Meta Glasses retail at \u00a3349<\/p>\n