Meta has unveiled a camera-free version of its AI-powered smart glasses, dubbed Ray-Ban Meta Audio, as part of a broader wearables announcement at the company's annual Connect conference at its Menlo Park, California headquarters. The audio-only glasses, which will ship on 13 October starting at $349, retain features such as music playback, phone calls, and AI assistant access, but strip out the camera that made earlier models so controversial. CEO Mark Zuckerberg also introduced Muse, a new personal AI assistant app, and teased additional products including a small puck-like device called the Muse Charm.

Meta first launched AI smart glasses in collaboration with eyewear brand Ray-Ban in 2021, but the devices have since attracted intense criticism over privacy violations. Multiple reports documented the cameras being used to film women and girls without their consent, and the glasses were widely labelled