Design
Design and style are some of the key reasons that smart glasses are making a comeback in this modern age. Compared to earlier attempts at smart glasses, like the now-obsolete Google Glass, modern smart glasses do their best to retain the sleek, chic designs of current eyewear products. This helped bridge the gap between technology and fashion, meeting the demands of general, non-techie consumers.
In the case of the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, the eyewear brand lifts recognizable Ray-Ban sunglasses designs like the Wayfarer and Headliner. Instead of the iconic metal accents on the top corner rims of the Wayfarer, for example, the Ray-Ban Meta has built-in HD cameras. These cameras capture high-quality images and videos that wearers can instantly share on Meta platforms, Facebook or Instagram. In April 2024, Ray-Ban introduced new Skyler designs for the smart glasses. As the eyewear brand continues to release and renew familiar and loved designs, consumers can continue to expect new smart glasses designs in the future.
Features
As mentioned in our introduction, the Ray-Ban Meta isn’t the first resulting product from the Ray-Ban x Meta partnership. As a follow-up to the short-lived Ray-Ban Stories, the new smart glasses feature improved audio and cameras and are built lighter for increased wearer comfort. The all-new custom-designed speakers improved calls, music, and podcast consumption, even in noisy environments.
In a previous post, we highlighted some of the features of the new Huawei smart glasses, including Huawei’s Pangu AI model, which users can use to engage in natural and smooth conversations. Likewise, the Ray-Ban Meta fairly recently introduced the integration of the Meta AI assistant. Described as Meta’s “advanced conversational assistant”, wearers can call on the AI by saying “Hey Meta” and ask the AI questions to spark creativity, get information, and control the smart glasses’ features. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself demonstrated the Meta AI integration by asking his glasses for fashion advice and to identify outdoor sculptures and locations.
Longevity
Finally, part of the reason consumers may be attracted to the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses is the promise of longevity. Recently, Meta and EssilorLuxottica, the company Ray-Ban is under, signed an agreement extending the Meta x Ray-Ban partnership “into the next decade,” reaching the 2030s. Previously, tech company Google was reportedly in talks with EssilorLuxottica for its Gemini AI glasses.
Aside from the extended partnership, Ray-Ban and Meta have also shown consumers that they are dedicated to continuously improving their smart glasses products. Aside from improving on many important features from the Ray-Ban Stories, the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are also consistently updated with new features and design options, making the smart eyewear product appealing to tech and fashion enthusiasts. While Zuckerberg has previously commented that future smart glasses from the Meta and Ray-Ban partnership will focus on display-less products, there’s no telling what future innovations and developments may hold for the partnership.