Ray-Ban Meta Audio drops the camera for a lighter and sleeker design that’s likely to be more socially acceptable amid the public privacy backlash.
Announced at Meta Connect 2026, Ray-Ban Meta Audio are Meta’s first smart glasses without a camera. Otherwise, they have the same functionality, offering Meta AI queries, listening to music, audiobooks, and podcasts, and taking calls.
Clubmaster (left) and Burbank (right)
Ray-Ban Meta Audio is available in two styles, Burbank and Clubmaster. Burbank looks a lot like the typical Wayfarer Ray-Ban Meta glasses but without the camera and LED, while Clubmaster is unlike any of Meta’s other smart glasses.
The Clubmaster Ray-Ban Meta Audio is Meta’s lightest smart glasses offering yet, at 43 grams for the standard size, while the Burbank takes second place at 47 grams.
Ray-Ban Meta Audio (Burbank)
The device comes after a widespread public backlash to the idea of smart glasses with a camera, driven by the nefarious use of the products by sleazy influencers and perverts recording people without their permission.
Of course, the vast majority of smart glasses owners do not use the devices for this, and a tool is not defined by its worst use. A knife can be used to prepare a delicious meal or kill someone. A fire can be used to warm a cave or burn down a forest. Further, Meta has been releasing firmware updates to make tampering with the recording LED more difficult, and running a PR campaign to inform the public that the LED exists in the first place.
Meta Is Improving Its Smart Glasses Privacy LED Tampering Detection
Meta says it’s improving the ability of its smart glasses to detect if the privacy LED has been tampered with and disable the camera, via a mandatory firmware update.
But the growing association with wrongdoing will put some potential buyers off the idea of smart glasses with a camera entirely, and Ray-Ban Meta Audio can target this market.
Despite this, Meta told UploadVR that Ray-Ban Meta Audio has been in development for years, and that its development wasn’t driven by the public backlash.
Ray-Ban Meta Audio is available to preorder for $349, and ships from October 13.
