Meta is trying to make smart glasses happen. This time, it might be successful.
Meta is not the first company to make smart glasses. Remember the Google Glass era? Or the frenzy over Snapchat’s Spectacles launch?
But it is probably the first company to make smart glasses that people actually want to wear. That is due in large part to its tie-in with Ray-Ban and Oakley; aside from the small camera lens, the glasses essentially look like normal eyewear.
But they come with integrated cameras for recording moments, Meta’s AI to carry out voice commands and speakers that will work equally well for music, podcasts or phone calls. The audio quality on calls was also surprisingly good.
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But before you get to any of that, you need to set up the glasses and customise them for your preferences. Connecting the glasses to the Meta AI app only takes a few minutes, but you can spend a decent amount of time tweaking settings. For example, the AI voice that will speak to you can be a bland AI-generated tone. Or you can go for a famous person – AI-generated Kristin Bell, Keegan-Michael Key, John Cena or Awkwafina for US English, Judi Dench for UK English – to guide you through the day. I opted for Judi.
This is the second generation of the Meta product, and it brings some notable improvements over the originals. Gen 2 has a much better battery life, which is a definite advantage if you plan to wear and use these glasses all day. The speakers have improved too – better sound quality, less leakage to the surrounding population – and the cameras have been tweaked too.
I replaced my usual ear buds with the Meta glasses – the Headliners with transition lenses so they could be worn inside and out – and the results were surprisingly good. Call quality was decent, with the microphones doing a decent job of picking up my voice; I did, however, look like I was talking to myself a lot.
I was surprised at how good the audio was from the small directional speakers built into the frames. In busier environments I had to crank up the volume a bit, but for the most part it was a pleasant way to listen to music or podcasts while out for a walk or run.
The main function, however, was capturing pictures and video. To do that, you either press the capture button on the right arm for images, or press and hold for video. A small LED inside the frame showed me when it was recording; an LED indicator outside the frame showed other people when video was being captured.
The quality was great – the camera has been upgraded to an ultra-wide 12-megapixel that can also record 3k videos, or full HD at 60 frames per second.
Photos and videos can be automatically imported into the Meta AI app for editing and sharing, either on Instagram, via WhatsApp or imported into your phone gallery to share how you see fit.
There is still, however, the creep factor. The glasses do have a sensor that stop you from starting recording with the indicator covered; if you try, you’ll get a notification that recording has failed, and audio prompt to uncover the sensor. Dench has never sounded stricter.
You can start recording and then cover the sensor, but the short nature of the clips – three minutes maximum – means you would be doing a lot of messing around to record surreptitiously.
The app also recorded some exercise sessions, importing the data from Apple Health and pairing it with photos I had taken – a swim at the beach for example. It also connects with Garmin if you want to auto capture your hikes or runs.
Meta has also built in some additional features that are a nice extra but not essential. You can translate audio in real time, as long as you download the relevant language to the glasses in advance. It is limited to a set group of languages – English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish – but you can have a few already downloaded that you can switch between. Translation happens on the glasses, the transcript is stored to the Meta AI app on your phone, but Meta doesn’t have access to the audio or text of your conversations.
For me, the glasses are a fun toy. But there are wider applications for the Meta AI glasses outside of the tech fans. There are integrations with Be My Eyes, for example, that would help people with visual impairments. The camera on the Meta glasses can be used to send video in real time to help people with everyday tasks, and that also works with WhatsApp – you can video call a friend or family member and switch the video feed to the camera in your Meta glasses.
Good
Video quality is excellent, audio quality has been improved and the better battery life makes the glasses more usable. The battery life of the case has also been improved, so you get longer from a full charge.
The second generation have been made lighter so they are more comfortable to wear. I forgot I was wearing smart glasses until a call came in or a notification alert sounded in my ear.
Bad
There is always going to be a bit of wariness around smart glasses; the LED indicator does tackle some of the concerns.
Everything else
The live translation feature is handy for future foreign trips.
Verdict
These glasses are fun to use, but have wider applications than a simple tech toy.
