Meta’s next smart glasses could ditch the camera to win back your trust

Meta’s smart glasses have had a rough time earning trust. Ever since they launched, people have used them to record others without so much as a heads-up, and a cottage industry has popped up to help wearers disable the recording light so they can film people without anyone noticing. 

On top of that, there’s growing unease over Meta using footage captured by these glasses to train its AI without users’ consent. It looks like Meta might finally be doing something about the backlash. According to a report from The Information, Meta is developing a pair of smart glasses that skip the camera altogether.

Why is Meta going camera-free now?

The new glasses are internally codenamed Luna, and the timing checks out. Scrutiny over smart glasses and their recording capabilities has only grown, with many places restricting Meta AI glasses over piracy concerns. Dropping the camera sidesteps a lot of that controversy in one move, and it could finally make wearing smart glasses in public feel a lot less awkward.

What can Luna actually do?

Even without a camera, Luna isn’t short on features. The glasses reportedly pack six built-in microphones, letting you talk to Meta’s AI chatbot and Muse, the company’s newly launched consumer AI agent, completely hands-free.

There’s also a side button for quickly summoning Meta AI, along with speakers similar to the ones on Meta’s current models. Meta could unveil Luna as soon as next Wednesday and Thursday at its Connect developer conference, with shipments reportedly targeted for October. 

Is Meta cooking up something else?

Camera-free glasses aren’t the only thing on Meta’s plate. Earlier this month, Mark Zuckerberg and CTO Andrew Bosworth reportedly decided to showcase hologram-like video calls during a demo of the company’s upcoming Phoenix AR glasses, according to a person familiar with the matter.

We’ll find out more once Connect kicks off next week.