Meta’s $799 AI Glasses Read Your Muscles—And Yes, They’re Real
Meta just launched Ray-Ban Display AI glasses with a neural wristband that reads your muscle signals. Here’s everything you need to know (and why it’s both genius and terrifying).
Move over, Google Glass. Step aside, Apple Vision Pro. Mark Zuckerberg has decided you need yet another screen strapped to your face—and this time it’s not just glasses. No, friends, it’s Meta Ray-Ban Display, the AI glasses that come bundled with a neural wristband that literally reads your muscles. Because typing on your phone was just too mainstream.
Welcome to the future: $799 sunglasses that can show your WhatsApp messages in your eyeballs while your wrist silently screams “like, comment, subscribe” at your friends.
The Big Reveal: Zuck Wants Your Eyeballs and Your Wrists
At Meta Connect 2025, Mark Zuckerberg walked out with a pair of Ray-Ban glasses that look like something you’d buy at LensCrafters—except these ones pack microphones, speakers, cameras, and a full-color, high-resolution display.
And if that wasn’t enough, they ship with the Meta Neural Band, a wearable EMG wristband that translates muscle twitches into commands. Yes, we are officially living in the age where even your forearm is part of the social graph.
What They Do (Besides Make You Look Like a Cyborg at Starbucks)
- Messages in Your Eyeballs: Instagram DMs, WhatsApp texts, and Messenger Reels delivered right in your line of sight. Because pulling your phone out of your pocket is basically peasant behavior.
- Zoom-Enhanced Camera Mode: Use a discreet pinch to zoom in on that overpriced avocado toast before you upload it to your stories.
- Navigation on the Go: Walk around staring into space while your glasses overlay turn-by-turn pedestrian maps. Nothing says “rob me” like looking lost with $799 glowing lenses.
- Live Captions & Translations: For when you want to look cultured at a Paris café without knowing more French than “croissant.”
- Music Control by Finger Twitch: Pinch, swipe, or rotate your wrist like you’re dialing a 1990s stereo knob, because apparently the future is also retro.
EMG Wristband: Because Why Not Hook Up Your Muscles to Zuck?
The real flex here is the Meta Neural Band. It’s based on electromyography (EMG), meaning it can detect finger movements before you actually move. Meta says it’s inclusive—great for people with mobility issues, tremors, or fewer fingers. Admirable!
But let’s be real: for everyone else, it’s one step closer to letting Meta track not just what you click, but what you almost click. Imagine Instagram ads so good they anticipate your thumb twitch before you even realize you wanted that Stanley cup knockoff.
Specs, Pricing, and the Fine Print You’ll Ignore
- Price: $799 (includes both the glasses and wristband).
- Battery: Six hours on the glasses, 18 on the wristband. Translation: you’ll need to charge more than your iPhone.
- Durability: The band is made with Vectran, the same stuff used on Mars Rover crash pads. Because nothing says “over-engineered” like turning a $799 fashion accessory into a NASA cosplay item.
- Colors: Black and Sand, because apparently the future is beige.
Available starting September 30 in the US (Best Buy, LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut, and Ray-Ban stores). Coming to Canada, France, Italy, and the UK in 2026—so Europeans can also enjoy the privilege of paying to have their muscle twitches monetized.
Meta’s “Three Glasses to Rule Them All” Strategy
Zuck is trying to build a Tolkien-esque trilogy of wearable face computers:
- Camera Glasses: Take photos without asking permission (already available).
- Display Glasses: Today’s shiny new Ray-Ban Display with EMG control.
- AR Glasses (Orion Prototype): Full holograms that’ll probably ship around the same time as Half-Life 3.
Why This Matters (Even If You’re Laughing)
Snark aside, Meta has quietly spent over a decade and billions of dollars on Reality Labs. While everyone else mocked Zuck’s metaverse avatars with no legs, Meta kept grinding on wristbands, displays, and AI assistants.
This launch isn’t just another gadget—it’s a stake in the ground that wearable AI is the next computing platform. Whether people actually want to live in a world where their wrist muscles double as input devices is another question.
But hey, we mocked AirPods once too.
The Snarky Bottom Line
Meta Ray-Ban Display is either:
- The sleek beginning of ambient AI that makes phones obsolete, or
- Just another way to pay $799 for a gadget you’ll leave in your Uber after three weeks.
Either way, Zuck now owns your eyeballs and your forearm. Welcome to 2025.
