Live Updates From Meta Connect 2025 🔴

Well, ya’ll, it’s been a doozy. I’m back from Menlo Park with a lot to chew on and at least one new pair of smart glasses already in hand. I got to try Meta’s Ray-Bans with a display in them, and I’m not going to lie… they were pretty wild. I have a lot of thoughts about what they mean and what they could be, but I’m going to save those for the future when I hopefully get to try them on my own, sans Meta handlers.

But even with unfinished thoughts, I can’t help but feel like this is a big moment for the smart glasses category. If you had any questions on whether smart glasses have arrived, I think Meta Connect 2025 should put them to rest. Maybe you’re on the fence about whether you need a pair of glasses with a screen in them (and a magic wristband that lets you control them), but I’m willing to wager that once you give both a whirl, you’re going to want a pair nonetheless.

Anyway, I wanted to write something really epic and profound here, but I think I have about 3.5 brain cells left after a wild couple of weeks of smart glasses, earbuds, and new Apple products, so I’ll just leave you with this picture I took of Mark Zuckerberg and Diplo. Just one last lookie-loo for the road. See you next time! —James Pero

Buried in the news about Meta’s Ray-Ban Display is a second generation of its existing Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which are still sans screen. I already have a pair of these bad boys in-hand, and while I haven’t had a chance to use them enough for a review, I have some impressions below. The biggest upgrades here are video and battery.

You can record in 60 fps and 3K, but not at the same time (3K is limited to 30 fps). The battery also got a major upgrade, and Meta is promising double the life of the last generation. They’re pretty much the only non-display Ray-Bans from Meta you should buy now. —James Pero

Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) Hands-On: You Can Forget About Gen 1 Now

During Meta’s Connect conference Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg couldn’t keep his devices’ names straight. The Ray-Ban Meta glasses now have a second generation with a bigger battery. Zuck called them “Meta Ray-Bans” multiple times during the showcase. That’s fair enough, because that’s what everybody else calls them as well.

But now there’s the $800 Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, the company’s first real consumer AR glasses with a display. You could argue the first generation of smart glasses focused more on the look and feel rather than the tech. However, now you have to think about the Meta Oakley Vanguard glasses that put Zuck’s company front and center. That’s different from the Oakley Meta HSTN that launched earlier this year. Can we have some consistency, please? —Kyle Barr

Meta’s SNAFU, where its Live AI demo supposedly flubbed helping a user make a “Korean-inspired steak sauce,” has been making the rounds on social media. As fun as it may be to watch yet another major AI company fall flat, the fault may not be the Wi-Fi, as Meta claimed.

Korean users on X pointed out that the AI mentioned the cook should “grate a pear” to start the steak sauce. The man behind the glasses then asked again, “What do I do first?” The AI, took a while to respond, but then it repeated the same step. Of course, if you haven’t made a Korean-style steak sauce—which in most traditional recipes uses Asian pear puree—you may have thought Meta’s AI was going full “glue on pizza” mode. A-pear-antly, the fault may have been with the clueless man behind the camera. —Kyle Barr

오늘의 어이 無 영상

메타에서 AI 시연 하겠다고 "한국 요리 스타일의 스테이크 소스를 만들건데 방법 좀 알려줘"라고 물어봤는데

"먼저 배를 갈아주세요"라는 상식적인 정답이 나왔는데도 다들 웃으면서 Wifi가 맛이 간것 같다고 드립이나 치고 있음(…)

아무래도 실패한건 너희 백인들 아닐까? https://t.co/pDH7bv89lx

— 온세균맨2호점 🎗️ (@quzogyunman) September 18, 2025

That’s it, I’m done for the night. My glass is empty, and so am I. All y’all in Menlo Park, Calif. can enjoy hanging out with Diplo. I’d rather dip. —Kyle Barr

As hard as Meta tried to make their new $800 Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses look like a broken prototype during its opening keynote, hands-on demos showed us the device’s real potential. Gizmodo’s Senior Writer of Consumer Tech James Pero took the full-color heads-up display for a spin and found the experience to be surprisingly effective. The Neural Band controls were responsive enough using apps for taking pictures, navigation, and video calls. It shows how Meta may be ahead of the curve for AR glasses, and his demo left the rest of us jonesing to try a pair for ourselves. —Kyle Barr

Meta Ray-Ban Display Hands-On: The Smart Glasses You Were Waiting For

As much as some folk love their Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, the true promise of wearable computers demands we have some sort of screen. Finally, Meta dropped details on its Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, complete with an ultra-bright display in the right-hand lens. It’s using waveguide technology for a crisp and clear image without the need for projection. The glasses use a new “Neural Band” that monitors your body’s electrical signals to take actions on apps like Instagram or send texts by writing out your message as if you were scratching on a piece of paper. The glasses cost $800 and should be available starting Wednesday. —Kyle Barr

Meta’s Ray-Ban Smart Glasses Now Have a Screen and a Magic Wristband

The Meta Oakley Vanguard smart glasses are a side-grade to the previous HSTN smart glasses that hit the scene earlier this year. As you might be able to tell, the new smart glasses sport the full wraparound look you’ll see worn by that one guy on the beach who leaves his Cornetto wrappers all over the place. Still, the new glasses include several features that seem geared to take on GoPro-like action cameras, including 3K video capture and connection to Garmin devices and the Strava app. They cost $500 and should be on shelves Oct. 21. —Kyle Barr

Meta’s New Wraparound Smart Glasses Are the Most Oakley Oakleys You Can Buy

That may have been one of the more disjointed tech conferences I’ve witnessed. While Google at its most recent Pixel phone showcase chained Jimmy Fallon to a chair and forced him to pretend to care about Tensor chips for more than an hour, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered us the opposite effect—a tech conference so awkward it felt like a bad episode of The Twilight Zone. While the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses are actually a very cool piece of tech based on hands-on demos, the haphazard live demos made the glasses appear like a buggy prototype. Bringing out Horizon Worlds and director James Cameron at the very end was an odd choice, but nothing was more odd than seeing Mark Zuckerberg strut out in shorts, don a pair of wraparound Oakley glasses, and then jog outside with DJ Diplo. —Kyle Barr

James Cameron talked about 3D, and then I blinked, and Diplo came on stage? I’m not even sure what happened at this point, but Zuckerberg and Diplo just ran off stage for another “live demo” of Meta’s new Oakley Vanguard smart glasses. I think I drank too much coffee—or not enough. Please help. —James Pero

Rumors suggested that Valve may be on the verge of showcasing a supposed “Steam Frame” VR headset. The rumors were based on a number of influencers and YouTubers who were reported to be in or around Valve’s headquarters while Meta was set to showcase its latest tech. As we all grew bored watching James Cameron talk about his upcoming film Avatar: Fire and Ash, the chat section on Meta’s YouTube stream continued to sound off their hope Valve would finally showcase their long-awaited Valve Index sequel. —Kyle Barr

Surprise James Cameron cameo? Sure, why not? Cameron is here talking about 3D, which makes sense given, ya know, the Avatar movies. Last time I saw Cameron, he was at CES—dude loves technology. He owns a Quest 3, allegedly? —James Pero

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg once took a lot of flak for a post promoting the company’s grand metaverse project with a low-resolution Eiffel Tower and a dead-eyed Zuckerberg looking at the screen. Now, Meta claims it finally has a 3D game engine that can equal its initial ambitions. Users should expect faster load times for new home and world environments. Judging by the first screenshots of Meta Horizon Engine, it will likely manage to look a little better than a mere higher-resolution version of the 20-year-old game Second Life. It took Meta way too many years to get here, and by now most people are treating the whole “metaverse” thing like a bad memory. The company also showed how users will be able to scan their space with a Meta Quest headset to bring it into Meta Horizon. —Kyle Barr

Meta claimed the AI on the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses would be many times more useful than the AI on the regular old Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. The company claimed the AI would be smart enough to comprehend your conversations to the point it could look up information on your behalf and schedule appointments or reminders without any action of your own. You should expect the AI to bear little semblance to this demo. Plus, it seems like a future that we may not want to inhabit. Perhaps I don’t want the AI automatically setting calendar dates for me. —Kyle Barr

We’ve been impressed with the translation abilities on Google and Apple’s latest devices, so it seemed that AI-based translations would be a shoe-in for Meta on its new Meta Ray-Ban Display smart glasses. Instead, Mark Zuckerberg showed how the smart glasses could perform pretty accurate and relatively fast automatic transcription of his speech. The CEO also claimed it was great for translation, but they didn’t demo that. My colleague, senior consumer tech reporter James Pero, also didn’t get the opportunity to demo live translation, either. —Kyle Barr

Time to bring back your handwriting/old-school phone texting skills. Mark Zuckerberg showed how users can type out a text to friends with the Neural band on the Meta Ray-Ban Display smart glasses. The speed he was able to type was honestly impressive. That success was brought down slightly by subsequent attempts to enter a phone call on WhatsApp with Meta exec Andrew “Boz” Bosworth. —Kyle Barr

Meta’s new wraparound Oakley smart glasses will hook up with your Garmin wearable to initiate “autocapture.” Zuckerberg claimed users will be able to automate capture depending on different timestamps or miles you’re traveling to take various clips. Meta will stitch these clips together for you to shove up on Instagram and show off your exercise routine to your friends. Meta also introduced a partnership with exercise app Strava to share these clips there as well. —Kyle Barr

Sometimes, live demos go awry. At Meta, it seems to be the norm every time they try to use their Ray-Ban Meta AI. An attempt to force the smart glasses to help make a meal ended with the company blaming the Wi-Fi for issues communicating the next step in what’s likely a very simple meal. —Kyle Barr

A new feature is rolling out to Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses: conversation focus. I haven’t tried it, but it looks like it amplifies the voice of who you’re listening to. The feature can be activated by saying, “Hey Meta, start conversation focus.” Once again, smart glasses are a pretty useful tool for accessibility. —James Pero

“I wear them all day, and they never run out of battery,” Zuckerberg claimed. Without the hyperbole, the new version of the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses (which CEO Mark Zuckerberg keeps referring to as Meta Ray-Bans) will include a larger battery promising two times as much battery life.

Mark just livestreamed his entrance… wonder what he was using. Hmmmm. —James Pero

That sure as hell looks to me like smart glasses with a HUD (heads-up display). Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg hints at what people can expect from the conference, though we doubt the actual product we can buy will be as complicated as last year’s Orionn prototype. —Kyle Barr

Oh wait, it’s 7:45 p.m. right here in the Big Apple. We’re all gearing up for Meta’s big showcase in our own way. I’ve poured myself a little pick-me-up. It’s nothing special, merely an old-fashioned without the typical maraschino cherry because I’m fresh out. If Meta wants to drone me over a care package, I would be most obliged. —Kyle Barr

Hi guys, it’s me, the guy at Meta Connect. I wanted to live blog more earlier, but it’s been, uh… a little busy. For all of us here at Gizmodo. Nevertheless, I just sat down and am awaiting none other than Mark Zuckerberg himself. Give it up to our staff writer, Kyle Barr, who is blogging from Eastern time (it’s late over there). —James Pero

Just jumping off Kyle’s earlier post, but WTF Meta? Yes, I’m hangry. I’ve had very little sleep for like weeks because these tech companies think it’s cute or something to announce stuff every goddamn day this month. Can a consumer tech editor get a day to catch up? It’s been nonstop with IFA 2025, Apple’s “Awe Dropping” Event, AirPods Pro 3 review, iPhone Air review, and the iPhone 17 Pros review. (The last two dropped today, and I’d appreciate if you clicked on it a thousand times and then told all your friends and family to do the same because you love Gizmodo and wanna support our work.) Anyway, shout out to my team for staying past dinner to bring you whatever news Mark Zuckerberg has in store. I need to go touch grass after Meta Connect, or maybe virtual grass in a pair of AR smart glasses. —Raymond Wong

We need to take a minute and analyze just how different this year’s Meta Connect is compared to previous years. This year’s developer conference starts Wednesday at 5 p.m. PT, or 8 p.m. ET. My colleague, Gizmodo Senior Writer of Consumer Tech James Pero, is in Menlo Park, Calif., for the day’s event. The rest of us are in New York, and we’re honestly dreading the incoming rush of news at such a late hour. 2024’s Meta Connect started at 10 a.m. PT, or 1 p.m. ET—a much more reasonable time. Similar morning/afternoon timing has been consistent going all the way back to 2020. Meta is likely set to introduce a whole slate of new products, and they want to give people the time to digest them. However, just like in 2023 with Apple’s late-night “Scary Fast” MacBook Pro showcase, most consumers will be tuning in the morning after. —Kyle Barr

Good morning from Menlo Park. Well, kind of. I’m staying in Redwood City, which is down the road because, damn, have you seen hotel prices over here? Either way, I’ll be at Meta HQ soon and ready to dive straight into Meta Connect, the company’s annual dev conference.

Make sure you stay tuned in to this stream throughout the day until the keynote at 8 p.m. ET or 5 p.m. PT. I suspect I’ll have a lot of news for you all soon enough, and so will my colleagues Raymond Wong and Kyle Barr. —James Pero

As significant as Meta-made smart glasses with a screen would be, the rumored (and potentially leaked) wristband would be even more pivotal. Smart glasses with displays are already out there in varying forms, but Meta’s rumored sEMG wristband would be a first.

To backtrack: Meta has been showing off prototypes of a wristband that can read the electrical signals in your arm and hand for a while now, and a leaked video seems to suggest that tech may finally arrive. The device would be able to read small hand and finger motions, allowing you to control glasses without ever touching them or shouting out loud to a voice assistant.

Smart glasses with a display already exist, but a novel input method that doesn’t use cameras? That would really be something. —James Pero

If a leaked video of Meta’s Ray-Bans is legit (and I suspect it is), I have one big question. What I want to know is, how thick are these bad boys? They look mostly like regular glasses, but they also look a bit thicker than the first generation. If they have a screen, they probably are bigger. It’s not the display tech that would beef a pair of display glasses up, necessarily, but the need for a bigger battery (because of the screen) would.

Gizmodo’s Senior Editor, Consumer Tech, Raymond Wong, did a little enhancement so you can see more clearly. What do you think? Looks slightly beefier to me. —James Pero

I brightened the a still frame for the leaked Meta Ray-Bans with built-in display and… they look chunky? pic.twitter.com/hfjudG5KW2

— Ray Wong (@raywongy) September 16, 2025

With Meta Connect so soon on the horizon, the company that made the word “metaverse” a common (and oft-derided) word in modern parlance seems like it already leaked what will be its next pair of AR glasses. The company’s rumored “Hypernova” glasses with a small heads-up display, or HUD, will reportedly bear the same Ray-Ban branding as the Ray-Ban Meta AI smart glasses. The leaked video also suggests users will make use of a wristband that reads electrical signals in your body for controlling the screen. —Kyle Barr

Looks Like Meta’s First Smart Glasses With a Screen Will Be Ray-Bans After All