Meta Connect 2025: The Evolution of AI Glasses, Metaverse Momentum, & More
Mark Zuckerberg and Diplo just ran off the Connect stage — literally — to kickstart the after party, and we’re here to recap all the news you might’ve missed. But first, let’s talk about another dynamic duo that’s taking the world by storm: glasses and AI.
It’s no secret that we’re working to bring personal superintelligence to everyone. And glasses are the ideal form factor to deliver it. It’s the only form factor that lets your AI see what you see, hear what you hear, and talk with you throughout the day. AI glasses can help improve your memory, heighten your senses, and let you seamlessly communicate with others — all while staying fully present in the moment.
We design our AI glasses with three core values in mind:
- They need to be awesome glasses, full stop. They should be light, feel comfortable, and look great.
- The technology needs to get out of the way. We want to give you powerful tools when you want them that fade into the background when you don’t.
- We take superintelligence seriously. Our glasses are engineered to get better over time. As the AI improves, your glasses do, too.
And because good things come in threes, we’ve got three major AI glasses announcements to share.
Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2): Extended Battery Life, 3K Video, & More
The next generation of Ray-Ban Meta glasses is here. With up to 2x the battery life compared to its predecessor, Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) offers up to eight hours of mixed use as well as ultra HD 3K video recording — more than double the previous number of pixels — for sharper, smoother, move vivid content capture.We announced conversation focus, a new feature coming soon that’ll help you hear better in noisy environments. If you’re eating at a hot new restaurant, commuting on the train, or catching your favorite DJ’s latest set, conversation focus uses your AI glasses’ open-ear speakers to amplify the voice of the person you’re talking to. And it’s coming to our existing Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta HSTN glasses as a software update, too.
We’re enhancing live AI. As we make battery and energy efficiency optimizations, Meta AI will transition from something you prompt with a wake word to an always-available assistant. While all-day AI is a technical challenge we’re heads-down focusing on, you can currently use live AI for an hour or two.
We’re introducing three new limited-time-only seasonal colors and a limited-edition Wayfarer Matte Transparent frame with two lens color options to better match your personal style.
The next generation of Ray-Ban Meta is available now on meta.com and Ray-Ban.com
Oakley Meta Vanguard: The Next Era for Performance AI Glasses
For AI glasses to truly go mainstream, we need frames designed for different activities and aesthetics so they match whatever you’re into. Following up on the success of Oakley Meta HSTN, today we announced Oakley Meta Vanguard — Performance AI glasses that combine classic Oakley style with the durability to withstand high-intensity sports and rugged outdoor adventures.The battery can last up to nine hours of mixed use, helping you train for that marathon on a single charge. The camera is centered with a wider 122-degree field of view, and 3K video with stabilization means amazing footage whether you’re trailrunning or hitting the slopes.
We added two new capture modes — Hyperlapse and Slow Motion — so you can capture your epic adventures in new ways. And not to worry: Those capture modes are available on Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) and Oakley Meta HSTNs, too, so you’ve got options.
The open-ear speakers are our most powerful yet — six decibels louder than Oakley Meta HSTN. Combine that with our advanced wind noise reduction, and they’re great for running and biking in up to 30mph winds.
We’re integrating Garmin and Strava with the Meta AI app to take your performance to the next level. You’ll be able to get real-time stats on the fly, completely hands-free, and Meta AI will give you workout summaries to help you track your progress over time.
We also built a new autocapture feature with Garmin that triggers your glasses to capture footage automatically based on your workout stats and milestones. When you hit a set distance or get a burst of speed, your glasses can grab a hands-free video without you even having to ask. And if you pair the Meta AI app with Garmin or Strava, you can even overlay performance stats on your videos before sharing them for bonus bragging rights.
With an IP67 rating, Oakley Meta Vanguard is definitely sweatproof and can even withstand temporary submersion in up to a meter of water. And they’re designed with swappable Oakley® PRIZM™ Shield Lenses, so you can customize your look and optimize for various lighting conditions.
Pre-orders are open now, for $499 USD, and they’ll hit shelves October 21. Learn more.
Meta Ray-Ban Display: A Window Into the Future, Today
We introduced our first AI glasses with a high-resolution monocular display, which combine iconic Ray-Ban style with our brand-new Meta Neural Band.The display itself — which is large enough to read text messages or watch a small video — is slightly offset to avoid disrupting your view, and it disappears after a few seconds when not in use so it doesn’t distract you. At 42 pixels per degree (ppd), it’s higher resolution than any of our consumer VR headsets. And with a custom light engine and waveguide delivering brightness up to 5,000 nits, it works great both indoors and outside — even on bright, sunny days.
And each pair of Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses comes with a Meta Neural Band. With 18 hours of battery life and a comfortable, water-resistant form factor, it’s a true scientific breakthrough, letting you silently control your Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses with subtle hand gestures. We’ve been talking about our research investment in surface electromyography (sEMG) since 2021. We showed the world this tech could work with our Orion product prototype at last year’s Connect, and we published an update in Nature that details our most recent research findings. We’re thrilled to unveil this new wristworn product that puts seamless, intuitive control of your AI glasses quite literally at your fingertips.
Meta Ray-Ban Display will be available for purchase September 30 for $799 USD, which includes the Meta Neural Band. You can sign up for a demo and find your perfect pair at select Best Buy, LensCrafters, and Ray-Ban Store locations in the US. Learn more.
AI Glasses for Good
Whether you’re capturing the moment hands-free while staying fully present, getting more information about the world around you on the fly, or making calls to friends and family, our AI glasses help keep you connected to the people and things that matter most.
We were so excited to learn that Blind and Low-Vision users and Blinded Veterans across America are using our AI glasses to experience the world more independently. They’re using Meta AI to describe their surroundings into audio descriptions, which lets them find things in a room, identify what’s in front of them, or read food labels in the grocery store. In fact, we’ve learned that VA Blind Rehabilitation Centers are issuing Ray-Ban Meta glasses to support Blind and Low-Vision Veterans. That’s why the Blinded Veterans Association is developing a guide to teach them how to use the glasses to help with daily living and to navigate the world with greater autonomy, confidence, and connection.
Last year at Connect, we announced our partnership with Be My Eyes, which connects people who are Blind or have Low Vision with sighted volunteers who then “see” on their behalf through the Ray-Ban Meta glasses and help talk them through various tasks. Since then, people have used their Ray-Ban Meta glasses to connect with volunteers hands-free to help them shop for groceries, cook a meal at home, pick out a birthday card, and more. With the continued expansion of Ray-Ban Meta into new markets, our Be My Eyes integration is becoming available in more and more new countries and languages with even more coming soon. And we’re making it easier to use by tapping on the side of the glasses rather than saying, “Hey Meta, call a volunteer,” out loud.
Metaverse Momentum
We’re hard at work advancing the state of the art in augmented and virtual reality, too, and where those technologies meet AI — that’s where you’ll find the metaverse.
Our vision for the future is a world where anyone anywhere can imagine a character, a scene, or an entire world and create it from scratch. There’s still a lot of work to do, but we’re making progress. In fact, we’re not far off from being able to create compelling 3D content as easily as you can ask Meta AI a question today. And that stands to transform not just the imagery and videos we see on platforms like Instagram and Facebook, but also the possibilities of VR and AR, too.
Foundational Infrastructure: Meta Horizon Engine & Meta Horizon Studio
Meta Horizon Engine has been built from scratch and optimized to help bring the metaverse to life. It powers better graphics, faster performance, and more advanced worlds. Developers and creators will be able to use it to easily generate nearly infinite connected spaces with realistic physics and interactions.We introduced Meta Horizon Studio, a new editor and hub for creator capabilities. It includes the generative AI tools we’ve added over the last year that let creators generate mesh, textures, TypeScript, audio, skyboxes, and more with simple text prompts, so they can make high-quality worlds in a fraction of the time. And soon, we’ll add an agentic AI assistant to stitch together different tools and make the creation process even faster and easier.
Using Horizon Engine, we built a new Immersive Home for VR. You can customize it by pinning apps in different spots. And you can jump straight from your home to a series of interconnected worlds. Thanks to Horizon Engine, it’s 4x faster to load and render new worlds, so it takes just a few seconds.
Horizon Engine also enables much greater concurrency, so more people can enjoy the same world at the same time. We can now support 100+ people in a single space — 5x more than our previous engine could handle. Now the vibes match the experience, whether you’re catching a concert with a huge crowd in our new Arena or meeting up with friends in Horizon Central to explore new worlds.
And eventually, you’ll be able to seamlessly incorporate photorealistic spaces in worlds, too. Last year at Connect, we introduced a demo of Hyperscape, which uses Gaussian Splatting, cloud rendering, and streaming to make these types of spaces viewable on Meta Quest 3 and 3S headsets. And today, we’re rolling out Hyperscape Capture in Early Access, so you’ll be able to use your Quest to scan a room in just a few minutes and then turn that into an immersive, photorealistic world of your own.
Entertainment on the Horizon
Quest continues to have the best slate of VR games, and it keeps getting better. Marvel’s Deadpool VR, ILM’s Star Wars: Beyond Victory, Resolution Games’ Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked, and nDreams Elevation’s Reach are all launching this fall. And entertainment all-up continues to grow in popularity. VR lets you enjoy your favorite content on a massive screen you can bring with you anywhere. And new formats are emerging that incorporate immersive elements to make the experience more magical.
That’s why we’re launching a new entertainment hub called Meta Horizon TV.* We’re partnering with some big names to bring the best in movies, TV, live sports, music, and more direct to your headset. And our upcoming platform investments will eliminate letterboxing, displaying media in a correctly sized window based on its aspect ratio. That means you’ll get an optimal viewing experience, as the director originally intended.
Disney+ is coming to Quest, including content from ESPN and Hulu, and will be available in the Meta Horizon Store and Meta Horizon TV. And we’re partnering with Universal Pictures, Nexus Studios, and iconic horror company Blumhouse, so you can watch movies like M3GAN and The Black Phone with immersive special effects you won’t find anywhere else.
Meta Horizon TV supports Dolby Atmos sound, with support for Dolby Vision coming later this year. That means rich colors, crisp details, and spatial sound for a more immersive experience than a traditional TV can deliver.
Finally, as an extension of our partnership with James Cameron’s Lightstorm Vision, we’re thrilled to share that an exclusive 3D clip of Avatar: Fire and Ash is available now in Meta Horizon TV for a limited time — so go check it out now! This is just the beginning of how fans can experience Pandora like never before on Quest, following the film’s theatrical release this December.
Future Focus
The next computing platform continues to come into focus. VR headsets let us immerse ourselves in interactive worlds and experience best-in-class entertainment on a larger than life screen. AI glasses connect us to real-world superpowers as we move throughout the day, tapping into a wealth of information while staying present in the moment. And AR glasses will overlay rich digital content on top of our view of the physical world, opening up the door for new adventures we haven’t even dreamt of yet.
Here’s to another year of progress building the future of human connection. We’ll see you tomorrow for a recap of the day two keynote as Connect continues.
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