Meta May Upgrade Ray-Ban Smart Glasses With Built-In Displays

Even as Meta unveiled the AR glasses of the future, dubbed Orion, the company isn’t stopping development of its currently available Ray-Ban glasses. According to a report in the Financial Times, the next iteration of the Ray-Ban glasses could potentially include displays and launch as early as next year. It’s a way for Meta to nudge the market for AR glasses forward as the Orion glasses are still several years out.

While Orion glasses house cutting edge displays that overlay content on to a user’s environment, the displays reportedly being planned for the Ray-Ban glasses will be far more limited. It’s expected that these displays will only be able to show users text and images. They will reportedly be implemented as a way to bolster the usefulness of Meta’s virtual assistant, which will gain the ability to visually deliver notifications or simple responses.


It’s a smart next step for Meta to go in this direction as the second generation of Ray-Ban glasses have proven to be a lot more popular than the first. Chief executive of EssilorLuxottica, Francesco Milleri, says that the second generation managed to sell more in the first few months of availability than the first generation did over the course of two years. It shows that people are interested in this technology, so long as it’s implemented in a way that is both useful and stylish.

AR glasses seem poised to be the next big thing in consumer-focused technology, especially if Meta can hit the right price point with its impressive Orion glasses. Although there will likely be several product releases that feature incremental additions along the way before Orion's release.