At Meta Connect, the company's smart glasses were everywhere

If one thing was obvious at Meta Connect 2026, it was that Meta is all in on smart glasses. The glasses were everywhere at the annual event: staff and influencers arrived wearing them, and most demos involved a pair.

An event built around glasses

TechCrunch's Lucas Ropek tried on pair after pair of Meta's high-tech specs. The message was hard to miss: the company behind Facebook and Instagram wants consumers to stay connected to the digital world through its growing line of glasses, a bet chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has called the future.

Hands-on with the camera-free pair

One of the notable products on demo was Meta's new, still-unreleased audio-only smart glasses, which emerged shortly after the company was accused of selling "pervert glasses": critics said camera-equipped specs could be used for surveillance.

The new model has six microphones and no camera, plus no native way to record your surroundings, which should ease privacy concerns. Ropek found them significantly lighter than any glasses he has worn, and comfortable. A Meta staffer emphasized entertainment and communication: listening to music (better than earbuds) and taking calls without reaching for a phone.

Muse, and the agent that talks over you

The glasses will integrate with Muse, Meta's personal agentic system, which can carry out tasks on the wearer's behalf. The integration, not yet public, lets users give Muse verbal commands. Meta also plans to personalize the agent with cute digital avatars users can pick to represent it.

The demo was fun but comical: you have to be very direct with the agent, and it gets confused if you talk to anyone else while using it. Ropek kept chatting with the staffer who lent him the glasses, and the agent thought he was speaking to it, talking over her. In the right context, the appeal is clear: ask Muse to send emails or recite a to-do list while out shopping, or ask the glasses anything and get an answer, like a mobile ChatGPT.

Glasses for the hearing impaired

Ropek also tested a second audio-only pair: Meta's new glasses for the hearing impaired. Some 50 million Americans are said to have some level of hearing loss. A member of Meta's research team said the device has been in development for about five years and pointed to a price gap: hearing aids can run as high as $1,600, while the glasses will sell for $150.

To simulate hearing loss, Meta had the reporter put in earplugs before trying them on; with the glasses on, the voice of the person he was talking to was amplified. Users can switch between focused amplification, aimed at the person in front of them, and omnidirectional pickup of surrounding sound.

Zuckerberg has made clear he believes smart glasses are the future. Yet glasses remain a niche that has never quite found its footing, and the clearest takeaway from Connect was that Meta has cast a very wide net, trying to make them stylish, functional and, most of all, useful. Whether the rest of the world follows is an open question.