Ray-Ban and Oakley Meta Smart Glasses - glasses that can describe the world around you

Ray-Ban Meta  and Oakley Meta smart glasses are a standard consumer product that would be worth considering for their basic features alone. In partnership with your smartphone they offer hands free calling and messaging as well as a handy AI chatbot. But for blind and low vision people they do much more - the camera in the glasses frame can take photos and the AI chatbot can answer your questions about the photos, whether you just want a description of what's in front of you, to have printed or handwritten text spoken or you want to know what number door you are standing in front of in your hotel. This all comes in the standard consumer package at no extra cost. And they can be bought from around £300 online from Meta, Ray-Ban, Oakley, some opticians or at stores including Argos in the UK. 

The Ray-Ban glasses are offered in two generations. The second generation has twice the battery life of the first and can capture higher quality videos. Oakley glasses are available in HSTN and Vanguard models. The HSTN model is identical in technical specification to the Ray-Ban second generation glasses. The Vanguard has wrap around fit that gives total sun, wind and dust protection. These are also the only model currently suitable for wearing in rain and they have louder loudspeakers to help cope with noisy environments and wind-optimised microphones. The Vanguard camera is central in the frame, too, unlike the Ray-Bans which have the camera in the left of the frame front. They are being promoted as sports wear but the better waterproofing or wrap around design will be important to blind and low vision users who need side protection from the sun or who want to use their glasses outdoors in bad weather.

There are other wearable products designed specifically for blind people that you may wish to consider, including the recently announced Ally Solos glasses from Envision. These look similar to the Meta Ray-Ban glasses but are fully dust and waterproof. They also have a significantly longer battery life. We'll know more about these when they start shipping.

So what's so good about Ray-Ban Meta?

• comfortable to wear and very like standard sunglasses

• no training wires

• good quality speakers in the arms by your ears will play all phone sound including music and VoiceOver speech

• a built-in microphone

• the glasses work in conjunction with the Meta AI app on your phone and the app has excellent training material to be read using the phone

• hands-free operation with "Hey Meta" commands

• hands-free alarms and timers

• hands-free calling and messaging including with WhatsApp or Messenger if you wish

• commands prefixed with "Hey Meta look and..." will take a photo and answer questions about what is in front of you, for example "Hey Meta look and tell me if there are baked potatoes on this menu"

• access to assistance from a human volunteer with Be My Eyes or you can start a video WhatsApp call with a friend to request their assistance

• as an alternative to human assistance over a video call, Meta started rolling out "Live AI" in the US and Canada in May 2025. This allows users to ask the glasses questions about the live video feed from their glasses; this will certainly drain the glasses battery relatively quickly; we'll probably have to wait a while for this in the UK; Meta roll outs seem to be very slow and gradual and certainly not a whole country at a time.

• you can choose between brief or detailed descriptions of objects and scenes

• you can choose one of several music streaming services to be used to play music on your glasses hands-free.

• live translation is available for a limited set of languages; the current language pair needs to be selected in the Meta AI app.

Be aware that:

• the smartphone or tablet you pair the glasses with must be nearby 

• the glasses have a battery life dependent on the model. The glasses recharge in the case which has a battery of its own so that they can easily be charged while you are outdoors. You may want glasses with longer battery life if you intend to listen to music or audiobooks on your glasses. 

• functions that use Meta AI, including all the visual features, require an internet connection to your smartphone and this will render the glasses less useful in areas of poor mobile service reception where there is no good wi-fi for you to use

• All AI systems can make mistakes; if you suspect the response is wrong or it fails in some other way try asking again

• people nearby may be able to hear sound from the glasses speakers; you are in control of volume

• when buying, you can't mix and match frame style, colour, fit and lens type and colour to get precisely what you want. You must select from the combinations which are currently available. Lenses available include clear, various colours and transitions which change from clear to a dark shade in strong UV light; prescription lenses are also available. Lenses can be swapped by many high street opticians, offering a much greater range or, if you are feeling brave, you can swap lenses yourself - search for lenses online. I understand from an optician who is a Ray-Ban supplier that reglazing the glasses invalidates the warranty on the frame so please bear this in mind before making your decision. Reglazing options available will also vary with your choice of glasses model. If you check first with your optician, you could consider buying the cheapest lens option in your preferred frame style and then get the lenses replaced by your optician.

• Meta smart glasses are a very successful product and many competitors can be expected, including some affordable smart glasses designed specifically for visually impaired people, such as the Ally Solos smart glasses. Apple is unlikely to enter the smart glasses field any time soon and maybe not even by the end of 2026

• Meta has announced glasses called Meta Ray-Ban Display which can display an image that appears in the wearer's right eye; text and images can be displayed here. The display will offer low vision adjustments such as text size and colour choices and will also feature a screen reader. The glasses can be controlled using a wristband that senses hand gestures or by gestures on a touchpad in the glasses arm. It's not clear how useful the display will be to blind and low vision users but it's certainly going to be interesting to follow when the product begins to roll out. Navigation directions are also being developed but with a very limited initial roll out.

• Meta has also announced that it is providing developers with a new software toolkit that will enable third party apps to integrate with all the Meta glasses models. This certainly won't be a reality overnight and we may need to wait until late 2026 before new apps and services start appearing. The Microsoft SeeingAI team is amongst early testers and, of course, this could bring text recognition to the glasses using SeeingAI's short text feature even when no internet connection is available and without needing to ask the glasses to speak each item held in front of them.

And finally a few tips:

• when using "Hey Meta look and read" you'll often get a summary; if you need the full text ask for it with "Hey Meta look and read the full text" or "look and read verbatim" but this is a bit hit and miss

• if you are trying to locate an item like a pedestrian crossing ask for it specifically with something like "hey Meta look and tell me if you see a pedestrian crossing"

• if you don't use VoiceOver and sometimes use a magnifier to read your phone screen why not ask Meta to read it

• the glasses can read dials and meters but repeat the request to be more confident of the answer

• speak at normal speed but try to speak clearly; I used to find that the glasses sometimes told me about the previous photo I'd taken in the supermarket when I asked them to look at something new. When I checked in the History tab of the Meta AI app I discovered that the glasses hadn't heard all or part of "look and". I now try to emphasise the word "look" and pause briefly before continuing with the word "and" when I'm in a noisy environment; that improves performance substantially.

• mobile phone network connections are often poor in large buildings like supermarkets; if you want to use your glasses to help you shop you'll probaby find a free wifi network to sign up to; signing up can be fiddly but you only need do it once

• if you can't get a good internet signal and need to read things you could take out your phone and use SeeingAI, which doesn't need the internet for instant reading but of course you aren't hands-free any more

• if you don't like saying "Hey Meta" you can set a tap and hold on the touchpad in the right arm as an alternative but, of course, it isn't hands free; the setting is in the glasses settings in the Meta AI app under Gestures; there's another setting in the glasses settings you might like; go to Meta AI in the glasses settings then Hey Meta Preferences and turn on the Customise switch; now set Respond Without Hey Meta; this keeps Meta AI listening for a few seconds after each of its responses so that you can have a conversation with Meta AI without repeatedly saying Hey Meta or touching and holding the touchpad

• more generally, take a tour of the glasses settings in the Meta AI app; there may be other things to help; for example, there are several alternative languages and voices you can set for Meta AI. My glasses were originally set to US English but UK English is available along with a limited choice of UK English voices including Judi Dench, Atlas and Clover. Unfortunately, in June 2025 Judi seems to speak American English with a British accent. She told me that my bathroom sink had two faucets.

• Although Meta smart glasses have excellent loudspeakers the sound quality probably isn't as good as that on earbuds such as AirPods or on bluetooth hearing aids, especially in noisy environments. If you prefer to listen to your music or other media on your earbuds or hearing aids while you wear your Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses that's easy to do using a simple Siri shortcut. You'll find the details in my FAQ about redirecting media playback from Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.

• I wear hearing aids and sometimes have difficulty hearing the smart glasses in noisy environments. I have found that background noise is hugely reduced if I simply cup my hands over my ears. Obviously you can't walk around like this for too long and it may not work for others but, if it works, it could help in many situations, including when you are listening to live translation. I imagine that this would also help people who don't wear hearing aids.

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