Meta Unveils Camera-Free Ray-Bans, Lightweight VR Glasses and Muse AI Hardware at Connect 2026

Meta used its Connect 2026 conference to announce a broad hardware refresh spanning smart glasses, a new VR headset and a dedicated AI device, with the Muse AI agent running through all of it. The company introduced the Ray-Ban Meta Audio, its first camera-free glasses, starting at $349 and shipping October 3. Designed to address privacy criticism that had branded earlier camera-equipped models "pervert glasses," the audio-only device supports music, calls, speech translation and interaction with Muse. A third-generation Ray-Ban Meta, starting at $449, follows with slimmer frames, a nine-hour battery, improved microphones and a programmable action button that can launch Muse directly.

The headline hardware announcement was the new VR Glasses, priced at $1,299.99 and set to launch in spring 2027. Weighing just 100 grams, the device achieves that figure by moving the battery and compute into a separate external pack. At roughly one-third the price of Apple's Vision Pro, Meta says the hardware is on track to be sold without a loss, with a three-hour battery life on the external pack. Meta's existing display glasses lineup is also expanding internationally and gaining new features including cycling and transit navigation, photo editing, calendar controls and an Explore app.

Meta separately unveiled Muse Charm, a palm-sized 5G device built specifically for talking to its Muse AI agent, with a planned December ship date timed to the holiday season. Additional updates across the glasses lineup, coming later this year, include 360-degree Dolby Atmos recording, more on-device processing and an FDA-cleared hearing-aid mode that costs $150 to activate. Meta's in-house glasses now start at $249. CTO Andrew Bosworth declined to commit to a 2027 launch for full augmented reality glasses, leaving that milestone open-ended.