WIRED reviewer Boone Ashworth tried voice navigation in Meta’s camera-free glasses during a Los Angeles run. He reached his destination after several wrong turns. The review also describes calls, open-ear listening and translation that starts in the phone app. Removing the camera changes what the glasses capture, while chatbot requests are still saved in Meta’s application.
Boone Ashworth, a technology reviewer at WIRED, tried Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses during a run in Los Angeles. His October 24 review describes asking Meta’s AI assistant to guide him back after he became lost. He made it back after getting turned around several times. The account concerns one reviewer’s navigation experience with the camera-free glasses announced in September.[1]
Ashworth found the open-ear speakers useful for hearing surrounding sounds while listening. People on his phone calls did not notice that he was speaking through glasses, he wrote. Music was audible to nearby people and bass was limited. In sunshine, he found the transition lenses changed rapidly. He wore Burbank frames for the review.[1]
The camera-free design cannot capture images. Ashworth says audio is recorded when the AI chatbot is used, with those requests saved in the Meta AI application. Live translation also requires opening that app first. Voice interaction therefore includes phone-dependent steps, and removing the camera leaves a separate question about the audio submitted to the assistant.[1]
