Meta’s smart glasses prompt weird questions and awkwardness - they also might be the future

There are plenty of reasons not to wear Meta’s smart glasses. But, annoyingly, there is at least one good reason to do so, writes Andrew Griffin

(Meta)

It often feels like an admission of some deep and dirty secret, and people’s reactions tend to confirm that, as they look at you with a mix of curiosity and disgust. But to me, it feels like the most natural confession in the world: I am a big fan of the Meta Ray-Ban glasses.

There are, of course, plenty of reasons for them to judge you. First off, the fact that you might be recording them at that moment. (The glasses have a bright light in the front of them when they’re recording, but that's no consolation if you don’t know what you’re looking for.) Secondly, it’s the fact that any recordings that are happening are being done in partnership with Meta, which doesn’t exactly have the best reputation. And third, the sort of general sense that you shouldn’t be attaching bits of computer and camera and whatever else to your face.

Except when you do, you realise: there really is something in this. The most common use isn’t the kind of exciting new experiences that Meta would like you to believe are unlocked by the glasses, but a simple one: because the camera is attached to your face, you can just take a picture whenever, by pressing the button above your eyes. Everything turns into a possible photo, without the faff of having to pull a camera out, with all the potential awkwardness that brings.

That, of course, is a big part of people’s concern. Being able to take photos at all times seems to challenge a deep sense of privacy. That is only made more dramatic when Meta is involved, which itself has not always had much of a sense of privacy. We are being surveilled quite enough already, both online and in the real world, and it is a little awkward to add new and potentially invisible ways of doing that.

Recently, Meta has taken to referring to them as “AI glasses”, and it has a celeb-studded campaign that shows off those features. In the advertising, three Ch/Krises – Pratt, Hemsworth and Jenner – use the AI in the glasses to identify objects and other features. To me, those features ruin the magic a little, and not only because they are part of the constant onward march of AI, as well as being a reminder that privacy concerns are heightened in an era when you’re information might be feeding a model. More immediately, the glasses are a way of escaping from the computer, and so adding very obvious technologies to it feels beside the point.

This week, Meta announced the latest version of those glasses, a new collaboration with Oakley, and features improved features such as better battery life and an improved camera. (The Oakley brand is owned by EssilorLuxottica, the sunglasses brand that also owns Ray-Ban, and has a close relationship with Meta.) It is not only another form factor for Meta but also an increased focus on fitness, with the glasses launching alongside endorsements from a host of athletes.

It’s when doing those kinds of workouts that a future version of the glasses makes most sense, at least to me. Meta has been explicit that while the glasses might really be just a camera, a microphone and a speaker in your ears for now, more is coming. Most notable would be the addition of a screen that could impose information in front of your eyes. Meta’s hope is that its (even more maligned) VR goggles could merge with the glasses, offering the form factor of the latter and the features of the former, so that the virtual and the real could merge. Imagine being on a run and being able to see your next turn overlaid on the actual junction; the latest on your metrics without having to look down at your wrist; messages of support from your friends as you complete your run.

It’s this kind of blending of the real world and virtual experiences that makes augmented reality so exciting. In one sense, it’s an outgrowth of so many of the technologies we’ve become accustomed to, but put into a more functionally useful format that means you don’t always have to be fussing with a phone. But in another sense, it’s in direct contrast to those other technologies: you’re not looking down at the gadget, but through it, out into the real world that has recently been so neglected and ignored.

In many ways, the Meta glasses are a particularly obnoxious demonstration of exactly what is wrong with technology: you can’t even escape it attaching itself to your face, forcing itself in front of your eyes, with features that impinge on your privacy and give rise to ethical and etiquette concerns. But on the other they are exactly what technology could be offering, in an era in which much of the industry is offering fanciful solutions to unclear problems: a way of quietly, softly improving our relationship with the world around us.

Who knows if Meta is innovative and responsible enough to get us to that future? We might see a little more of it when it introduces those new glasses on Friday. What is for sure for now is that if you look through the Meta Ray-Ban’s today, you’ll experience a little of the future, a little of people’s concerned faces as they think about what that future might bring.

A version of this article was first published in The Independent’s tech newsletter. You can sign up here