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

Ray-Ban Meta  and Oakley Meta AI glasses are smart glasses, standard consumer products that would be worth considering for their basic features alone. In partnership with the Meta AI app on your smartphone their in-built microphones and speakers offer hands free calling and messaging as well as a handy AI chatbot. They can act as headphones to let you hear music from your phone and they can shoot photos and videos with their in-built camera. 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, some opticians or at stores including Argos in the UK. You may be able to find discounts from some eye wear retailers and occasionally from Meta.

The Meta AI app, which is essential for the glasses to operate will install on any iPhone or iPad running iOS 15.2  or iPadOS 15.2 or later. Android 10 or later is required on Android devices

The Ray-Ban glasses are offered in two generations. The second generation has a battery life of up  to 8 hours of moderate use compared to up to 4 hours for the first generation glasses and can capture higher quality videos and slow motion videos. If, like me, you are a light user for calls, messages and Meta AI then the battery life of the first generation glasses will be fine, especially if you can occasionally put the glasses back in their charging case during the day. The better video quality and slow motion feature  of the second generation glasses will probably not be important for most visually impaired users. Apart from those differences, the two generations are identical. It's possible, of courrse, that future software updates will cause the generations to differ more significantly. 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 heavy 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 and Oakley HSTN which have the camera in the left of the frame front. Vanguard is 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. All the current Meta glasses have a 12 Megapixel camera and shoot in portrait orientation for the best compatibility with social networks.

There are other wearable products designed specifically for blind people that you may wish to consider, including the Ally Solos glasses from Envision which started shipping in late 2025. These look similar to the Ray-Ban Meta glasses but are fully dust and water proof. They also claim a significantly longer battery life. I have tested an early pair of these glasses in December 2025 and found them much less convenient to use and much slower to respond than my Ray-Ban Meta glasses. I returned them for a refund. Feedback from other early adopters is dominated by negative comments. I can only hope that the product is significantly improved in the near future and suggest you check current reviews before ordering these glasses.

So what's so good about Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta AI glasses?

• 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;

• built-in microphones;

• 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 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". In my experience, shorter commands such as "Hey Meta, look, what is this?" work fine and save a little time. It is sometimes possible just to ask for what you want without the look prefix but sometimes when you make a second request, the glasses don't take a new photo and just describe the previous photo. If you omit the look word be sure to listen for the shutter sound which confirms that a new photo has been taken.

• you have 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;

• additional third party apps are beginning to appear on the glasses, including Oorion, a free app that can help locate objects, advise you of obstacles in your path and describe the objects around you;

• 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 set whether you receive brief or detailed descriptions of objects and scenes; if you opt for brief descriptions you can always request more detail afterwards if you need it;

• you can choose one of several music streaming services to be used to play music on your glasses hands-free. Audible audiobooks can also be played 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 with which the glasses are paired must be nearby, within bluetooth range, and have a good internet connection for all features except taking photos and videos, checking the time and battery level to work. Functions that use Meta AI, including all the features that describe your environment, require an internet connection and this will render the glasses less useful in areas where mobile service is poor when there is no good wi-fi for you to use as an alternative.

• 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. 

• 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 may not be able to 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 for non-Ray-Ban lenses 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 colour and then get the lenses replaced by your optician. I understand that the frame styles specifically designed for prescription lenses will be available from some larger high street opticians as well as online from Meta.

• Meta AI 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 which are already available, but see my comments above. Apple is known to be working on a product similar to the Meta glasses but this is unlikely to appear before the end of 2026 or later. If Apple brings a product to market, it will operate with Siri and is likely to bring significant visual intelligence capabilities but we'll have to wait and hope that Apple delivers a useful product at an affordable price.

• Meta has begun limited sales in the US of 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. I understand the display offers low vision adjustments such as text size and colour choices and also features 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 as the product begins to roll out. Navigation directions are also being developed but with a very limited initial roll out.

• Meta is providing developers with a new software toolkit that enables third party apps to integrate with all the Meta glasses models. Apps which can use the Meta AI glasss's camera are now beginning to appear and include Oorion and Aira Explorer. 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. Humanware, a major developer of equipment for visually impaired people, is also looking at developing navigation capabilities into the glasses. No guarantees; we'll have to wait and see but it certainly looks promising.

• In common with other AI systems, Meta's AI may use your interactions to help with training. If you are concerned about privacy I'm afraid you need to read and try to understand Meta's statements about privacy. I did previously try to summarise some key points, but it changed and I realise I'm unlikely to be able to keep a summary up to date.

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" which usually work. 

• if you are trying to locate an item like a pedestrian crossing ask for it specifically with something like "hey Meta look, do 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" 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 AI glasses have excellent loudspeakers the sound quality probably isn't as good as that on earbuds such as AirPods or on many 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 one or both 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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last updated 22 April 2026