Meta is almost ready to start demoing its AR glasses, and they sound amazing

*The header image is referential and features the Xreal Air 2. | Image credit — PhoneArena

We’ve known for a while now that Meta is working on a pair of AI-powered AR smart glasses, allegedly codenamed Project Nazare. But now it turns out that the company is about to begin prototype demonstrations, according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Meta has invested heavily in XR (Extended Reality) for years. Zuckerberg genuinely believes that XR is the next big thing, and I tend to agree. It seems like a natural progression from smartphones. And Meta is doing its best to capitalize on the industry before it properly takes off. Zuckerberg has even told investors to be patient and that these investments will pay off over the next decade, which is supported by the expected growth of the augmented reality and virtual reality sectors. The idea behind augmented reality (Augmented reality) Prescription glasses are much more compact, which is more appealing to consumers. Most people aren’t willing to wear bulky headsets in public. And as AI took off, Meta began integrating it into its glasses. The company also learned from Ray-Ban’s Meta-powered smart glasses, which also recently received Meta’s AI support.

From what we’ve been told, these glasses have a much wider field of view than other AR glasses. Caitlin Kalinowski, head of AR glasses hardware at Meta, said nothing prepares people for the field of view of these glasses. And Zuckerberg echoed this statement in his recent interview with Kane Sutter.

Everyone I’ve shown it to so far has had an amazing reaction.

— Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Meta), interview with Kane Sutter, June 2024

Sure, this may just be a marketing ploy. But I think Meta has hit on something big here. The Meta Quest 3 is a great headset, and the company is continually improving it with each update. Meta has also refused to abandon Horizon Worlds, which was heavily ridiculed when it launched. It’s now one of the most used apps on the Quest platform.

And speaking of the Quest platform, Meta has rebranded it as Horizon OS and made it available to third parties. In this way, Meta has incentivized other manufacturers to get into XR while maintaining a lot of control over the devices they release to the market. Asus and Lenovo are already working on XR devices that will be powered by Meta’s Horizon OS.

But wait, there’s more!

At this point, Quest 3 is a gateway to the future that Meta is creating. | Video credit — Meta

During the interview, Zuckerberg also touched on the Meta neural wristband. A prototype of this was teased a long time ago, but it seemed like something that would happen decades away. But from the way Zuckerberg talked about it, it seems like it’s part of the AR glasses package.

He called the neural bracelet “wild.” Zuckerberg also said it would only get better over time as new iterations hit the market. This suggests the bracelet may not have been perfected yet but will still launch alongside the glasses.

So when will these glasses actually hit the market? No idea, yet. Zuckerberg said a prototype was ready, but it would not be sold en masse. This prototype will only be used for demonstrations until a consumer version is created.

If a demonstrable prototype is ready, we can’t be far from a consumer version. And the glasses demonstration is sure to get people excited. It remains to be seen how much these glasses will cost.

And if they’re affordable for the average consumer, they could be one of the best AR glasses ever made, if not the best. Fingers crossed that this is what finally propels the XR into the mainstream of the premium smartphones we enjoy today.