Every time I’ve written about Meta’s AI-enabled glasses, I invariably get asked these questions: Why do you even want these? Why do you want smart glasses that can play music or misidentify native flora in a weirdly cheery voice? I am a lifelong Ray-Ban Wayfarer wearer, and I’m also WIRED’s resident Meta wearer. I grab a pair of Meta glasses whenever I leave the house because I like being able to use one device instead of two or three on a walk. With Meta glasses, I can wear sunglasses and workout headphones in one!
Meta sold more than 7 million pairs in 2025. Take a look at any major outdoor or sporting event, and you’ll see more than a few people wearing these to record snippets for Instagram or TikTok. Meta’s partnership with EssilorLuxottica has made smart glasses accessible, stylish, and useful and is undoubtedly the reason why Google, and now Apple, are trying to horn in on the market. After the notable flop that is the Apple Vision Pro, Apple is recalibrating its face-wearable strategy, moving away from augmented reality (AR) toward simpler, display-less, and hopefully good-looking glasses.
That’s not to say that you shouldn’t be careful how you use these glasses. Meta doesn’t have the greatest track record on privacy, and the company has continued to push forward with policies that are questionable at best. Even if you’re not concerned that face recognition will allow Meta to target immigrants or enable stalkers to find their victims, at the very least, people really do not like the idea that you could start recording them at any moment.
Probably the biggest hurdle to wearing Meta glasses is that even doing so seems like a gross violation of the social contract. After all, these are Mark Zuckerberg’s “pervert glasses.” When I pop these on my head, I’ve had friends (and my spouse) recoil and say, “I have apps to warn me away from people like you.” The best part, though, is that Oakley and Ray-Ban already make really great sunglasses. Even if the battery runs out or you don’t use Meta AI at all, these are stellar at shading your eyes from the sun.
Anyway, if you decide to try them, here’s what you should get. If you do chicken out, check out our buying guides to the Best Smart Glasses or the Best Workout Headphones for more.
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Photograph: Boone Ashworth
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Ray-Ban
Meta Glasses (Gen 2)
Last year, Meta upgraded the original Meta Ray-Ban Wayfarers that became a smash hit. These are Meta’s entry-level glasses, and they come in a variety of lens styles. You can order them with clear lenses, prescription lenses, transition lenses, or the OG sunglass lenses, as well as in a variety of fits, including standard, large, or high-bridge frames. Improvements to this generation include an upgrade to a 12-MP camera and up to eight hours of battery life; writer Boone Ashworth’s testing clocked in at five to six hours.