On Wednesday, September 23rd, Meta held its Connect keynote and announced an almost silly number of new glasses. New frames, new styles, a camera-free pair, display glasses in more countries, hearing-aid software, and a $1,300 VR headset that weighs about as much as a deck of cards. Oh, and a Tamagotchi for your AI. 

TLDR: f you wear glasses and you've been waiting for more smart glasses options, this was your keynote. If you're a VR person, the big story is one expensive, very light headset coming next spring.

The New Glasses Lineup

Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 3): $449, available today. This is the next generation of the best-selling pair. Slimmer design, longer battery, a customizable action button, and 27 color and lens combos. Two new styles join the Wayfarer: Zena and Aviator. Battery is up to 9 hours (one more than Gen 2), there's a 6-mic array that cuts 90% or more of background noise, a 12MP camera, and 3K Ultra HD video. These are the first consumer devices that can capture video in Dolby Atmos, rolling out later this year. True spatial sound on a pair of glasses is the kind of feature that sounds like a gimmick, but we're here. 

Ray-Ban Meta Audio: $349, ships October 13. No camera at all, just audio. That makes them the slimmest and lightest AI glasses Meta makes at 43 grams, with 12 hours of continuous listening plus 48 more from the charging case. Two styles, Clubmaster and Burbank, 23 color and lens combos, and they're prescription-compatible. If the camera and privacy concerns was the thing keeping you away from smart glasses, this is your pair.

Meta Adventurer: $249. The cheapest pair in the lineup. Black frame, grey lenses, plug-in case included. Pre-orders are open today on Meta.com, and they go on sale October 23 in every country where Meta Glasses are sold. At $249, this is Meta making an entry-level pair of glasses.

Meta Glasses: new Capri and Nova styles. Plus two celebrity lines: Meta Glasses by Kylie Jenner in a new Ivory colorway from $399, and Meta Glasses by LISA - an Adventurer edition in Moonlit Sky and Blush, and a Capri Eclipse cat-eye with grey lenses - from $399. Both LISA editions are prescription-compatible.

There's also a limited-edition Aviator Connect for the 90th anniversary of the Aviator (Milky Beige with brown Transitions lenses, from $579, limited time and select channels), a clear-framed Meta Fury sold only at Connect and Meta Lab stores, and a Mix & Match customization program.

Where You Can Buy Them (and Get Prescription Lenses)

Meta Glasses go on sale today in Singapore, South Korea, Mexico, and the UAE, with Brazil coming soon. Oakley Meta, Ray-Ban Meta, and Ray-Ban Meta Optics are expanding to Turkey, Poland, Portugal, Israel, South Africa, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Malaysia, Macau, and the Philippines later this year. Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 Optics get new fall colors: Shiny Brick Brown, Shiny Transparent Ocean Blue, and Transparent Dark Olive.

By the end of the year there will be over 100 glasses options across Ray-Ban, Oakley, and Meta Glasses. That's a lot of frames that will need lenses, and if you wear glasses, you'll have options ready to go on VR Wave.

Ray-Ban Meta Display: More Countries, Same Price

The display glasses are expanding to five new markets: the UK and Canada have them on sale today at £749 and CA$1,149, and France, Italy, and Germany can pre-order from today at €899 with availability October 13. The US stays at $799 and is now orderable online. Prescription lenses are available through meta.com in the US and Canada, select retail in the UK, France, and Italy supports Rx, and EssilorLuxottica retail stores in France and Italy start October 13, with Germany later this year.

New features for the display pair: cycling and public transit directions (voice turn-by-turn for bikes, real-time transit departures, landing later this month in the US and Canada), natural-language navigation ("turn left at the yellow house"), hologram video calls with a photorealistic face built from a short self-capture (Early Access on WhatsApp in the US later this fall), an Explore on-glasses app for web apps, Dolby Atmos capture, on-display photo editing, a more powerful calendar, mirrored notifications, and Threads community feeds.

Hearing Enhancement and Muse on Glasses

Hearing Enhancement is FDA-cleared software for adults with perceived mild-to-moderate hearing loss. At home setup takes minutes, no clinic visit or prescription required. It launches in the US later this year on select styles (Ray-Ban models are excluded at launch) at $149.99 (HSA/FSA eligible) with a 30-day trial, or bundled with a Meta One subscription.

Muse is coming to AI glasses. Meta's personal agent, which launched earlier this month across phone, computer, and web, is heading to glasses: workout guidance, meal logging and nutrition insights, buying products you see, booking appointments, checking flight prices, all hands-free. You activate it by saying its name, and it runs tasks in the background and checks back when it's done. Meta says Muse stays free for most use cases, with plans to take a small fee from transactions it completes instead of charging a subscription. There's also Dolby Atmos capture (first consumer device to do it), Dynamic Photo (multiple frames per shot, Meta AI picks the best), and a landscape crop mode.

And the "one more thing": Muse Charm, a keychain-sized device with a small display, speakers, mics, and a fingerprint sensor that holds your personal Muse agent. Meta says it packed the full Muse experience, including the real-time voice and avatar stack into something that fits on a keychain and is always available to talk to. Details are scant and more is coming later this year, with shipping in time for the holidays.

Meta VR Glasses: $1,299.99, Spring 2027

Meta VR Glasses are a new category: glasses-form-factor VR at about 100 grams, with the battery and compute moved to a separate 300-gram puck connected by an optical tether. Instead of strapping a brick to your face, you wear glasses and carry the brick in your pocket.

The specs: 5K Infinite Display with micro-OLED panels at 2412×2288 per eye, 37 pixels per degree (the highest pixel density of any Meta VR device), up to 120Hz, pancake lenses with eye tracking, and a 70° horizontal by 66° field of view. It runs on the Snapdragon Reality Elite (XR2 Gen 3) with 12GB of RAM and 128GB of storage in the puck, expandable to 1TB with microSD. Passthrough cameras hit 26 pixels per degree with autofocus and depth, up from 18 on the Quest 3. Battery gets up to 3 hours of media playback with 45W USB-C fast charging, and you can charge during use.

It runs the same OS and store as Quest, which means the full Quest catalog is playable and your existing library carries over. 75+ hand-tracking-enabled games at launch, gaze plus hand gestures (index tap, thumb swipe), voice through Meta AI, Touch Plus controller compatibility, iris-based Eye Unlock, and native DP-In for wired PC use. It's also the first IMAX Enhanced-certified VR device, with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, Disney+, HBO, Peacock (with 3D), YouTube, and Prime Video at launch, plus Xbox Cloud Gaming, hundreds of 3D movies, and VR Enhanced Cinema titles like Avengers: Infinity War and Star Wars: Episode IV coming next year via Disney and ILM. There's a Virtual Display mode for Mac, PC, and phone over wireless, photorealistic Hologram calls from a single capture, and over 100 immersive sports events a year through ESPN, MLB, UFC, NBC Sports, and TNT Sports, starting with college football in 8K VR180.

Availability: direct and retail in the US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, Australia, Spain, Italy, South Korea, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, plus direct-only in Mexico, Poland, Taiwan, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Singapore, Ireland, Finland, New Zealand, and Iceland.

Is it worth $1,300? If you want the lightest full VR experience Meta has ever made and your Quest library comes with you, it's the most interesting headset they've announced in years. If you just want the cheapest way into VR, the Quest 3S is still sitting right there.

Beat Saber Gets Its Biggest Update Ever

Also Spring 2027, on both Meta VR Glasses and Quest: the biggest Beat Saber update since the game's full release in 2019. The headline is Flux, a hand-tracking-first mode where your hands become the weapons, though it works with controllers too. Flux Tether lets you channel power between your palms to slice notes, hand power surges punch through targets, and a Jolt energy meter builds when you squeeze your fists while slicing for big scores. 35 Flux songs at launch from the Original Soundtracks, Extras, and Anniversary packs - Lindsey Stirling, Teminite, DragonForce, Haywyre, Camellia, Boom Kitty, plus in-house tracks from Jaroslav Beck and Zakka G - with more music coming before the end of the year.

There's also a refreshed single-player campaign with a light narrative, new barriers and missions, and exclusive rewards; a refreshed UI and menu system; better first-time onboarding; and the game's first-ever progression and rewards system with cosmetics, new sabers, notes, profile badges and banners, and an inventory system. Universal hand tracking means you can play all of Beat Saber without controllers. And the logo is getting its first redesign in nearly a decade.

The Rest of the Games

• Dragon Grove: brand-new game launching alongside Meta VR Glasses in Spring 2027, built from the ground up for hand tracking, a 3D living-room puzzle game, and it's free.
• PAYDAY: Aces High: open playtest starts October 19, full game later this year. Starbreeze's first VR title, with PCVR cross-play.
• Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades 2: November 12 on Quest 3 and 3S, 10% pre-order discount.
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Dual Destinies VR: 2027 on Meta VR Glasses and Quest, uses hand tracking and voice. You get to shout "Objection!" Say no more.
• Tetris Effect: Mixed Realities: hand-tracked mixed reality on Meta VR Glasses.
• Supernatural returns to the Horizon Store this fall, day one on Meta VR Glasses.
• Two Point Hospital is coming to VR. Dice Throne Digital arrives early 2027, free-to-play across Quest 3/3S, Meta VR Glasses, mobile, and PC with cross-platform play. Cardmada, a hand-gesture card battler, is coming soon to Meta VR Glasses and Quest 3/3S.
• "Open Season", an immersive original series following NBA champion Draymond Green through the 2025–2026 season, premieres September 29 on the Horizon TV app. It's the first entry in Meta's "Meta Presents" originals.

What We Still Don't Know

A few gaps worth mentioning: no price or firm date for Muse Charm beyond "holidays." No exact ship date for Meta VR Glasses inside the Spring 2027 window. No list yet of which styles get Hearing Enhancement first. And no Meta One subscription price to compare against the $149.99 one-time fee.

Who This Keynote Was For

If you wear glasses and want smart glasses without a camera staring at everyone, the $349 Ray-Ban Meta Audio is the story. If you want the best camera glasses Meta makes, Gen 3 at $449 is on sale today. If you want in cheap, the $249 Adventurer is genuinely hard to argue with. And if you're a VR person with a Quest library, Spring 2027 just got very interesting.

This keynote wasn't one big swing. It was Meta filling in every gap in the glasses lineup at once, then dropping a featherweight VR headset on top. Just maybe don't try to lean on any furniture in Dragon Grove. Your brain will thank you.