Meta Connect 2025 live updates: Ray-Ban Display and more new smartglasses unveiled

Meta unveils its second-gen Ray-Ban smart glasses at Connect

As expected, Meta introduced new smart glasses during its Connect conference today. The announcements included a "Gen 2" of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which retail starting at $379.

There are a bunch of upgrades over the $299 Ray-Ban Meta set that the duo released in 2023. Meta highlighted improvements to battery life, which it says now lasts up to eight hours with "typical use." The included charging case now provides an additional 48 hours of juice, versus 32 hours for the current one. The glasses can also charge to 50 percent battery in 20 minutes.

The second-gen glasses are equipped with a 12-megapixel camera and offer 3K Ultra HD video capture, with "up to 60 frames per second" and HDR support. Meta says it will release updates that add hyperlapse and slow-motion video capture to all of its AI glasses later in the fall. The second-gen Ray-Ban Meta has 32GB of storage and is IPX-4 rated for water resistance.

Read more: Meta unveils its second-gen Ray-Ban smart glasses at Connect

Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses offer an AR display for $799

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Meta Ray-Ban Display

The rumors were true: Meta's first pair of AR glasses with a built-in screen is the Meta Ray-Ban Display. They'll cost $799 and will come to a limited number of brick-and-mortar stores in the United States on September 30. Those retailers include Best Buy, LensCrafters, Ray-Ban and Verizon, and availability will expand to Canada, France, Italy and the United Kingdom in early 2026.

The Ray-Ban Displays have a camera, audio functionality, and a translucent heads-up display that shows and allows the wearer to respond to text chats, AI prompts, directions and video calls. You're able to use gestures to interact with the HUD, including small actions like swiping your fingers to type out a chat reply. Each pair requires and comes with a dedicated EMG wristband, the Meta Neural Band, which enables these interactions.

Read more: Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses offer an AR display for $799

Oakley Meta Vanguard are the smart glasses athletes might actually want

Karissa Bell for Engadget

Two images of a woman wearing the Oakley Vanguard glasses in different colors.

First up, Karissa got some time with the Oakley Vanguard before the show and came away pretty impressed:

The $499 sunglasses feature Oakley's familiar wraparound frames and shiny (swappable) lenses. They are the first of Meta's smart glasses to change the placement of the camera, which is now in the center of the frames above the nose. According to Meta, this should make it harder for a hat or a helmet to ruin your shots, which was a consistent issue for me with the HSTN glasses.

Meta is making other camera adjustments that should make the glasses more reliable for capturing first-person action cam-style footage. The 12 megapixel camera now has a wider, 122-degree angle lens and adjustable video stabilization. There are also now dedicated modes for capturing slow motion videos as well as Instagram-ready hyperlapse slips.

There are other spec upgrades too. Battery life has been improved to six hours of continuous music playback and nine hours of "mixed use". The charging case can provide another 36 hours of battery life. Meta also told me the glasses have been optimized for a wider range of temperatures, so the battery should hold up better in very cold or very hot environments.

Read the full story: Oakley Meta Vanguard are the smart glasses athletes might actually want

Now the event's over, here are some of the highlights for you to dive a little deeper with.

That ending had serious National Aerobic Championship USA 1988 vibes:

And looks like that's a wrap on the Connect keynote! People are starting to head out for the after party, where I guess we will be seeing more of Diplo. Thanks for following along, everyone.

Okay folks, I think we're done here. Thanks for following along! And stay tuned for more of Karissa's coverage on the ground, as well as our eventual reviews.

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Zuck and Diplo finish up with a run.

This reminds me of the time I saw Edgar Wright lead a Comic-Con crowd to a screening of Scott Pilgrim. But not nearly as cool.

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DJ Diplo joins Zuck for a run to finish up the show (really).

We just watched Zuck and Diplo run offstage for a little IRL Diplo run club session, I guess. Everyone wearing the new Oakley Vanguard glasses, of course.

Keep your pace Zuck! No walking!

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Dressing down for the presentation finale.

OMG Karissa, the shorts. Is Zuck going to get sweaty on stage now.... Spoke too soon, he's going for a run with Diplo, who just arrived for some reason.

Zuck is back to wind us down. Does this man go to theaters?

Zuck is back onstage has changed into shorts for some reason.

They're going to be showing an exclusive 3D scene from Avatar: Fire and Ash at Meta Connect, as well as on Horizon TV for Quest owners.

He's talking about the jump to digital theaters, saying that it took 3D films to force theaters to move away from film. That was good news for the rise of digital projection, bad news for film fans.

Yah Karissa, I've revisited some of my favorite 3D films in VR. Avatar the Way of Water looks incredible on Vision Pro!

And is this a safe space to admit I've never cared much for seeing movies in 3D? Maybe VR will make it better!

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Cameron is providing his perspective on how Meta's hardware points to the future of 3D entertainment.

Cameron says he's not just talking about Avatar. His company is building tools to help other filmmakers produce 3D content. He wants them to "create an avalanche of [3D] content that there will be enormous demand for." He wants to make it "idiot proof" so he can put a production camera in the hands of anyone to create good stereo 3D content. "It's taken 25 years to figure out the algorithm for that," Cameron says.

Dev, do you watch content in VR? I've never been able to get into the idea of having a headset on for an entire movie...

"You mostly look at flat displays... This is going to be, I think, a new age. Because we experience the world in 3D, our brains are wired for it," Cameron says. He estimates we're around 20 percent more engaged with stereo 3D content. He's predicting a 3D content future for everything, including news casts. (Please god, no. And by god, I mean James Cameron.)

Cameron is talking about the low brightness levels in most theaters. The Quest is "an order of magnitude brighter" than the recommended spec for theaters. He also appreciates Meta's work expanding the field of view, he says using it is like having his own personal theater.

Cameron thinks we can have theater-grade 3D on your head with Quest headsets. This is true! It's already possible to watch 3D films in great quality using Bigscreen VR, and it's also a core part of the Apple Vision Pro. 3D TVs are dead, so VR headsets are really the only way we have to easily watch 3D content.

Funny enough, I was just talking about why VR headsets are perfect for watching 3D movies on my film podcast. Horizon TV will solve some serious issues with accessing content on Quest devices. This is good news for anyone with a Quest.

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Boz talking with director James Cameron.

Oh wow, James Cameron is here, joining Boz on stage. Cameron is fully in love with 3D filmmaking, so I'm sure he wants everyone to watch the Avatar movies on Quest headsets.

Zuck announces Horizon TV, which looks like a unified interface for gathering entertainment apps on Quest headsets. It seems to be doing what the Apple TV app does. You'll be able to watch movies in 3D (something that's been a bit tough to access on Quest devices), and they've partnered with Disney+ to be a part of the

I tried out the new Horizon experience as well but honestly I haven't used Horizon enough to be able to tell how much of an improvement it is. Moving through VR spaces tends to make me a bit motion sick so I struggled a little.

Now we're onto content, starting by recapping Quest's great library of VR titles.

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Showing off the new VR space.

You'll be able to jump from your sleeker, higher-resolution Meta Horizon living room to other spaces in just a few seconds. Zuckerberg compares it to loading a web page

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Scan a room and turn it into a virtual world.

Today, Meta is rolling out early access to Hyperscape Capture, which lets you generate immerse worlds by scanning them with a Quest headset. We saw this feature demoed briefly last year. Eventually, it'll be connected into Horizon World Studio as well.

Almost 40 minutes in and we're getting to the metaverse portion of the keynote. I got a Hyperscape demo earlier today and it was pretty interesting, seems like it could have a lot of use cases.

He says Meta Horizon Studio will soon have an agentic AI tools to create new characters and objects. It's powered by the Meta Horizon Engine, something the company has spent the last few years building from scratch to replace Unity. It's "fully optimized for bringing the metaverse to life."

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The first big AI news of the night.

Zuckerberg thinks we'll be able to create immersive and interactive content easily in the future. Guess where AI comes in? He says we're not far from creative interactive content as easily as you send a prompt to Meta AI.

$799 for glasses with a display. Seems like a $799 is notable because early reports suggested these glasses could cost as much as $1000 so this is a bit cheaper than some expected.

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Family photo.

Now we're talking about the intersection of AI and VR. Get your caffeine fix in, folks.

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Coming September 30 in two colors for $799.

The Ray-Ban Display will come in black and sand colors, and they all come with transition lenses. They're $799 and will be available on September 30th. You know what else is $799? An iPhone 17.

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This prerecorded demo is showing how Live AI would work on the new smartglasses.

Now we're watching a demo of Live AI in action using the Ray-Ban Display glasses. Someone is using the glasses to look over surfboard plans and call up real-time suggestions with a designer.

So for the Meta Display to be useful outside of Wi-Fi, does it have to be tethered to your phone? They look chunky enough to include optional cellular support.

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The new glasses can shoot photos and video, too.

Oh yah Karissa, there's no doubt Meta is ahead here. But you only have one shot to blow people away with your new toy, these failures are unfortunate.

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Showing the real-time subtitles of an ongoing conversation.

Now we're looking at a live subtitle feature, which automatically transcribes your conversations in real time. It can also translate in realtime. Perfect for those folks who can't watch TV without captions anymore.

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Meta CTO Andrew "Boz" Bosworth joins Zuck on stage after an earlier demo fail.

Dev, that may be true, but none of them have come close to having AR glasses yet. Google had a very early prototype at IO this year and it was also veryyyy buggy.

He's showing off music playback now, he has to turn an invisible volume dial to pump up the volume. Hey, at least that worked! Boz is on stage now for a live demo.

Apple, Google and Microsoft execs are cackling about this failure right now, I'm sure.

Another demo fail here. Zuck is desperately trying to answer a video call from Meta's CTO, Boz, and he can't seem to answer it for some reason.

He's trying to accept an incoming video call from Meta CTO Andrew "Boz" Bosworth, but it ain't working. Curse you, Wi-Fi!

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Zuck is demoing the new glasses in real-time.

He's typing covertly using hand gestures, he's up to about 30 words per minute.

I tried out a similar wristband last year with the Orion prototype and I have to say it felt surprisingly natural and easy to use. the version I tried wasn't perfect but I think I prefer it to hand tracking.

You can tell this man has hated smartphones with a passion for the last decade. This product exists entirely to get you away from your phone.

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This wrist band allows you to control the glasses with small hand movements.

Correct me if I'm wrong but he hasn't said what the field of view is, has he? I'm guessing it's on the smaller side.

The neural interface is basically a wristband that detects minute gestures from your hands. It allows you to silently control the glasses with "barely perceptible movements." Zuck calls them a huge scientific breakthrough.

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Here's what the wearer sees.

The display appears in one eye, and it's large enough to watch a video or read a thread of messages Zuckerberg says. It is "very high resolution," he says, with up to 5,000 nits of brightness, making it crisp outside in the sun and indoors. That's interesting.

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These are the new Meta High-Resolution Display glasses, coming "in a couple of weeks."

Notice how these are called "Meta Ray-Ban Display" while previous glasses were called "Ray-Ban Meta." A small detail but I think Meta realllyy wants these to be known as a Meta product

"We have been working on glasses for more than 10 years at Meta, and this is one of those special moments where we get to show you something that we've poured a lot of our lives into, and that I think is just different than anything I've seen anyone else do," Zuck says. He's introducing Meta Ray-Ban Display, glasses with the classic Ray-Ban style and a high-resolution display. They also work together with the Meta Neural Band.

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The Oakley Vanguards start at $499.

And now we are finally getting to the glasses we've all been waiting for.

The Oakley Meta Vanguard are $499.

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Getting a demo of the Oakley Vanguard glasses from the Red Bull action sports team.

Now we're watching a Red Bull demo reel. I'll tell you folks, this is the closest I'll ever come to doing most of these action sports.

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Garmin and Strava integrations are being introduced.

I'd be interested to know how heavy these things actually feel. Can't imagine you'd want any extra weight on your head during a long run.

I got to try the Oakley Meta Vanguard glasses earlier today and I think they are pretty interesting. They actually add a lot of new features and upgrades, compared with the second-gen Ray-Bans, which have much smaller updates.

Why am I getting dystopian Robocop vibes from these things.

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These are the new Oakley Meta smartglass models.

Now we have the Oakley Meta Vanguard, which look like a sportier upgrade over the existing Oakley smart glasses. Zuck says you can run a marathon twice without running out of battery.

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They're available now.

I cannot remember the last time Wi-Fi has actually been a big issue at a major conference.

Annndd we just had a big live demo fail. LiveAI did.. not work in that demo. Zuck is blaming the wifi. (At least we know the video was live?)

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The Live AI demo is glitching up a bit.

Now we're watching a demo with Live AI, the Meta frames are looking at the ingredients and offering up a recipe after being prompted. The demo presentee has had to ask "What do I first" three times already. He gives up and blames the Wi-Fi, LOL.

One thing I have appreciated about the Ray-Ban Meta glasses is that Meta has consistently imporved them with software updated. Conversational Focus is one good example, but we've also seen this with Live AI, translation and others updates,

We just saw a demo of someone using the feature on a busy street. It uh, seemed a bit ridiculous. Lean in folks, cup your ears, speak up!

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Demoing the new Conversation Focus feature.

"Hey friend, please shut up as I talk to my smart glasses."

A new feature called Conversational Focus will let you tune into conversations with your friends in loud environments. It's coming to all of the existing Ray-Ban Meta glasses.

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Introducing the next-generation Meta Ray-Bans.

We've got the next version of Ray-Ban Meta frames, with double the battery life and 3X better video recording. Meta AI is also getting better, he says.

Zuckerberg also says smart glasses have to help deliver a better sense of presence, something he says we've lost with smartphones. I'm not really sure a digital overlay in front of my loved ones is really as helpful as he thinks.

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Tech needs to get out of the way.

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Great glasses first.

Meta's first goal for smart glasses is to make sure they're great glasses first, Zuckerberg says. What's notable about the Ray-Ban Meta frames so far is that they actually look like normal frames.

One thing that's been interesting to me is how Meta has been trying to rebrand their smart glasses as "AI glasses."

"AI glasses and virtual reality. Our goal is to build great looking glasses that deliver personalie super-intelligence and a feeling of presence with realistic holograms," Zuckerberg says.

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Zuckerberg is kicking off the event.

Remember folks, these overlays always look better over video feeds than on the devices proper. But the interface looks very nice, from what we can see. Zuck is seeing messages coming in as he walks to the stage.

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CEO Mark Zuckerberg en route to the stage.

Wow, we're not wasting any time, Zuck isn't even on the stage and we're seeing a video of him using what seems to be the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses.

We're watching what's supposedly a "live demo" from a pair of glasses. We see Mark's POV and a small digital overlay. And it really looks live as he's walking to the stage.

I've had three diet cokes and two large iced coffees today. Let's get liveblogging, folks.

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Almost there.

Oh remember when Zuck was like 15 minutes late last time? Let's set the timer.

Making everyone get amped for a 5PM PT / 8PM ET keynote is just a Zuck flex, I think. Is he aware everyone was already working all day?! Anyway, I'm here for whatever smart glasses we see.

I just spotted Instagram Head Adam Mosseri, he's in the "creator" section talking to folks (not reporters though!) BTW I think it's worth pointing out that there are just as many, if not more, creators than press here this year. And they also have the best seats. They are front and center, while the press seats are off to the side. If nothing else it shows how important creators are to Meta.

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About 7 minutes to start time.

I'm not sure how much of the audience you can see from the livestream, but there are many, many, many pairs of Meta smart glasses in the audience — both Ray-Ban and Oakley HSTN.

Damn you're right! I was absolutely convinced that was AR and when you pointed out it was editing... Okay I see it now. This is how people must feel when magic tricks are revealed to them.

Meta has definitely been dropping a lot of hints on its social channels! Its latest video isn't AR as much as creative editing.. it's actually giving me a little bit of Vine circa 2014 (in a good way!) I think we've seen a lot of hints about glasses (duh) and first-person video. Take a look at the videos that leaked earlier this week and it's not hard to put the pieces together, but I'm ready to hear allll the details.

Karissa I know there's only about 15 minutes to go before things kick off but what do you make of the videos Meta has been posting to its Threads account today? I'm referring specifically to this video of something "dropping" today featuring some really interesting AR video special effects?

Karissa Bell for Engadget

The Meta Connect stage.

The Meta Connect Stage looks like it has about the same setup as last year. With just about 30 minutes to go, a countdown has started.

And Cherlynn, there were snacks on the way into the keynote but I didn't investigate. With this late keynote, though, that might have been a mistake. I've been covering Meta conferences for 11(!) years now, and have never been to one that started in the evening. It seems like Mark Zuckerberg wants it to feel more like a party and less like a dev conference, at least today. (All the dev keynote and sessions are tomorrow).

Maybe it's for... overflow...

There was a definite smell on the other part of Meta's campus earlier today, and I saw some people rushing toward an open manhole cover with orange cones and some kind of water tank. I have only used normal bathrooms at Meta HQ today, though! FWIW they had the portable toilets here last year as well so not sure how much the plumbing issues have affected things.

As I scour Threads for updates on the event, I've found some... treasure..? The official Threads account posted a picture an hour ago of "a little swag up for grabs at Meta Connect" and the end of the sentence has a sunglasses emoji. Whatever could it be?

Is that true Karissa?? Also... Are there snacks??

According to a post from three hours ago by Casey Newton, a pipe burst at Meta Connect and attendees can only use port-a-potties instead of real bathrooms at the event.

Alright, I am in the keynote room and WiFi seems to be working! What are the chances we think Zuck will be on time today?

Not sure what I'm more excited to learn about today: new smart glasses with display? New shades with cameras? Or more creepy AI chatbots to talk to in Instagram, Threads or Facebook? It's going to be taking place at 8PM ET so maybe I'm simply too tired to be excited about any of it. We'll see!

Karissa is about to get in line for the keynote, which means we should be getting more insight from the ground soon! Also, I've had cilantro rice and spicy Szechuan fish for dinner, thanks for asking.

Well we're only about an hour away from the Connect keynote starting, and I've seen some posts online teeing up a pre-show, which means the action should be beginning soon! Those of us on the East Coast — have you had dinner yet?

Semi-related, the rumor mill is spinning about Valve introducing a "Steam Frame" VR headset sometime soon. Valve could just do the funniest thing ever and drop the news tonight. Don't forget, the company also announced the original Index headset during a Facebook dev event. Rumors point to the Steam Frame being some sort of high-end follow-up to the Index, potentially with wireless connectivity.

We're expecting to see third-gen Meta Ray-Ban glasses today, which will likely offer better cameras and other convenient upgrades. I've tested the last few versions, but the ick-factor of Meta keeps me from using them regularly. I wonder how much the company's crummy public image is preventing people from picking these up in the first place.

It's a great time to revisit Karissa's hands-on with Meta's Orion glasses from last year. The Ray-Ban Display frames likely won't be that advanced, but judging from the rumors the wristband controller could be similar.

Here's Karissa's big takeaway: "Orion has the potential to be much bigger [than VR headsets]. Now, Meta isn't just trying to create a more convenient form factor for mixed reality hobbyists and gamers. It's offering a glimpse into how it views the future, and what our lives might look like when we're no longer tethered to our phones."

By the way, Karissa says that right now things are picking up at Meta Connect, with lots of creators running around shooting. She also saw a few guys on bikes on one of the ramps earlier — "I think they are practicing for something." Oh, and "it's very hot today!" I'm sure Karissa prefers that to the cloudy, windy dreariness I am seeing out of my window in New Jersey right now.

Oh those Zuck emojis are sneaky, I think he's referring to the hand gestures you'll be doing with the wristband he showed off at previous Connects. My bet? It'll somehow be tied to the "Hypernova" smart glasses, which are rumored to be called "Ray Ban Display." They're Meta's first glasses to include a built-in screen, and they'll show just how close the company is towards making true smart frames.

The link we've embedded above for Meta's livestream of its keynote is one that will take you to Facebook and require you to sign in, by the way. If you prefer not to or don't have an account, you can head on over to YouTube instead. I'm including it here too:

By the way, if you're interested in reading tea leaves for what we might see at the keynote happening in just a few hours, tell me what you think Zuck is hinting at with this post on Threads yesterday: "09/17 = 👌✍️🫰🤏🫱✊" OK? Write? Smaaaalll...

I'd also like to point out how nice it is of Meta to wait till I was done with my iPhone review to have its event. How very thoughtful and demure.

I joke, of course. No one cares about my iPhone review. But it's worth thinking about our dear friends across the tech media industry, who are running from one big event to another in the midst of this intensely busy period. It happens every year, and is draining always. Still! Nice for gadget-lovers, right?

Seeing that half-pipe I now realize why there was so much construction at Menlo Park last week. I'm sure this is only part of the stuff the company built up for today's event.

I haven't been able to see too much yet since it will be awhile before things get underway, but I have already seen one addition that was definitely not at Connect last year (or... ever): a halfpipe. No one is on it yet, but not hard to imagine it might be very good for showing off some first-person video...

Karissa Bell for Engadget

A Meta Connect-themed halfpipe.

Hello! Can confirm I've made it to Meta HQ. Things are still fairly quiet for now, but that also means it's the perfect time to get through badge pickup.

Karissa Bell for Engadget

Meta Connect 2025 sign at Meta HQ.

When I was at Menlo Park last week (very innocently hanging out with a friend after my time at Apple Park), I noticed most of the traditional campus space was cordoned off, with lots of construction going on. From what I heard, work on the event had been going on for awhile and they were going to turn the area into something like a theme park. I'm kind of jealous of Karissa?

For what it's worth it looks like Zuck has a lot planned for today and has been posting on Threads about the people he's meeting. Here's the CEO of an AI company saying Zuck has shown him "some mind-blowing new tech."

Also, be sure to check out Karissa's breakdown of everything we expect to learn from this keynote. As I said above, expect to hear a lot more about smart glasses, especially those Hypernova frames with displays, and less about VR.

Good morning, folks! Engadget Senior Editor Karissa Bell is on the ground at Meta Connect 2025, and she'll be reporting on everything happening on the ground throughout the day. I'll be joining Karissa for Mark Zuckerberg's keynote, starting at 5PM PT/ 8PM PT.

Why the crappy timing? I suppose in the metaverse, there is no concept of time (or the need to get dinner or put your kids to bed).