The fast food chain’s annual event is due to start in a couple of months

The fast food chain’s annual event is due to start in a couple of months

Ray-Ban Meta Audio drops the camera for a lighter and sleeker design that’s likely to be more socially acceptable amid the public privacy backlash.

Announced at Meta Connect 2026, Ray-Ban Meta Audio are Meta’s first smart glasses without a camera. Otherwise, they have the same functionality, offering Meta AI queries, listening to music, audiobooks, and podcasts, and taking calls.

Ray-Ban Meta Audio is available in two styles, Burbank and Clubmaster. Burbank looks a lot like the typical Wayfarer Ray-Ban Meta glasses but without the camera and LED, while Clubmaster is unlike any of Meta’s other smart glasses.

The Clubmaster Ray-Ban Meta Audio is Meta’s lightest smart glasses offering yet, at 43 grams for the standard size, while the Burbank takes second place at 47 grams.

The device comes after a widespread public backlash to the idea of smart glasses with a camera, driven by the nefarious use of the products by sleazy influencers and perverts recording people without their permission.

Of course, the vast majority of smart glasses owners do not use the devices for this, and a tool is not defined by its worst use. A knife can be used to prepare a delicious meal or kill someone. A fire can be used to warm a cave or burn down a forest. Further, Meta has been releasing firmware updates to make tampering with the recording LED more difficult, and running a PR campaign to inform the public that the LED exists in the first place.

Meta Is Improving Its Smart Glasses Privacy LED Tampering Detection

Meta says it’s improving the ability of its smart glasses to detect if the privacy LED has been tampered with and disable the camera, via a mandatory firmware update.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

But the growing association with wrongdoing will put some potential buyers off the idea of smart glasses with a camera entirely, and Ray-Ban Meta Audio can target this market.

Despite this, Meta told UploadVR that Ray-Ban Meta Audio has been in development for years, and that its development wasn’t driven by the public backlash.

Ray-Ban Meta Audio is available to preorder for $349, and ships from October 13.

At Connect 2026, Meta announced that Meta Ray-Ban Display is expanding beyond the US, can be ordered online without a fitting, and is getting third-party app discovery, major navigation improvements, and the Hologram avatar system.

Online Ordering & International Expansion

When launching Meta-Ray-Ban Display at Connect 2025 last year, Meta originally said that the HUD glasses would come to the UK, France, Italy, and Canada in early 2026. But following “unprecedented demand and limited inventory”, back in January, the company announced it was pausing that plan.

To buy the product, you also needed to secure a demo spot at select physical retail stores, at which an attendant would measure your wrist size to get the optimal Meta Neural Band size, as well as tailor your order to your prescription.

Meta Ray-Ban Display Sells Out As Early Adopters Struggle To Buy

Meta Ray-Ban Display is now sold out in almost every store it was available in. Restocks are “coming”, Meta says, and the company is doubling the number of stores offering the glasses.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

Now, Meta-Ray-Ban Display can be purchased online without a store demo, and it’s also available both online and in select stores in the UK and Canada.

It will also be available to buy in France, Italy & Germany on October 13.

In the UK it starts at £749, in Canada at CA$1149, and in Europe €899.

Select stores in London, Vancouver, Toronto, Paris, Milan, Rome, Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Munich will offer in-store demos for prospective buyers.

Major Navigation Improvements

Meta is making the voice of the navigation feature on Meta-Ray-Ban Display far more natural. It will reference the world in front of you instead of robotic street names, for example “turn left at the yellow house ahead”, instead of “turn left at Third Street.”

It’s also adding two new navigation types, cycling and public transport, in addition to the current on-foot navigation.

However, Meta’s navigation feature remains only available in select cities, a major limitation compared to Snap Specs and the upcoming Samsung HUD glasses powered by Google’s software.

Selective Phone Notifications

At launch, Meta Ray-Ban Display could not mirror your phone notifications at all, something we harshly criticized in our review. It would show notifications for built-in applets and features like your text messages, WhatsApp, and Messenger, but not for your other phone apps.

A few months ago, Meta added an optional phone notification mirroring feature. But this was arguably even worse, as it shows all notifications, with no customization.

Now, Meta says you’ll be able to “control your notifications and choose the ones you want to turn off”.

Third-Party App Explorer

Earlier this year, Meta rolled out the ability to develop visual web apps for Meta Ray-Ban Display, controlled by Meta Neural Band, and developers have already built amazing things.

But discovering these web apps requires following the right developers on social media or knowing about the best third-party aggregators.

Developers Are Building Impressive Apps For Meta Ray-Ban Display’s HUD & Neural Band

Meta rolled out the ability to develop visual apps for Meta Ray-Ban Display, controlled by Meta Neural Band, and developers are already building interesting things.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

To make web apps for Meta Ray-Ban Display discoverable, “later this year” Meta is adding an Explore app on the glasses, which will surface and recommend what the company considers to be the best experiences to try out.

Eventually, it’s possible that this could expand to become a full-fledged app store, but Meta hasn’t said anything about that.

‘Hologram’ Avatars

Currently, when taking video calls on Meta Ray-Ban Display, the other person sees either nothing or your first-person view, if you choose to share it.

Later this year, Meta says it will roll out its new Hologram realistic avatar to US Meta Ray-Ban Display owners enrolled in the Early Access program, for use in WhatsApp video calls.

Hologram: Meta Is Finally Set To Ship Realistic Avatars, And We Tried Them

Meta finally set a concrete timeline to ship realistic avatars, shoulders-up on Meta Ray-Ban Display and then full-body on Meta VR Glasses. We briefly tried both at Connect.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

You set up your Hologram by scanning your face and providing a minute or so of sample speech to the Meta AI app. Then, once your Hologram is set up, when you make or receive a WhatsApp video call on Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, the other person will see this synthetic version of you, with its facial expressions entirely derived from the device’s microphones.

You can find more details about Hologram, including our hands-on impressions, in our full Hologram coverage here.

Calendar App On Display

Meta is adding a dedicated Calendar app to Meta Ray-Ban Display, which will let you “see who’s attending a meeting, accept or decline invites, and join meetings, all from your glasses”.

It expands on the calendar integration Meta first launched for its displayless glasses last year.

Meta AI On The Ray-Ban Glasses Can Now Access Your Calendar

Meta AI on Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses can now access and add events to your Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

For now, the Calendar app on Meta Ray-Ban Display will only be available in the US.

While the practical effect didn’t pan out for Zach Cregger’s final product, there were humans behind the ‘human tumbleweed’ seen rolling through the movie

In a new pot stirring interview, rock n roll crank Todd Rundgren says men would have continued dominating the radio charts had they put down the controller

Far fuzzier and friendlier than its predecessors, Minecraft players are hoping to extrapolate what kind of biomes and features the future dimension will offer, beyond sickening cuteness

In Thousand Hells: The Underworld Heists, breaking into a world of ever shifting nightmares is only half of challenge, the other is getting out alive

While they won’t be reprising their characters from the game, Laura Bailey and Ian Alexander join the rapidly growing cast for the award winning television adaptation