Meta released its first smart glasses called Ray-Ban Stories last September. As the name suggests, these glasses contain “smart” features that will facilitate the user’s activities.
For example, taking pictures, recording videos, listening to music or podcasts and others. Apparently, Meta will add another feature to the Ray-Ban Stories glasses. Now, Meta is adding WhatsApp support for Ray-Ban Stories.
The smart glasses are said to be able to be used to make WhatsApp calls without the need to hold a cellphone (handsfree), send text messages, and be able to read incoming WhatsApp messages.
The update was announced directly by the CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg through his personal Instagram upload. The post shows a photo of him standing while walking wearing Ray-Ban Stories glasses.
Previously, Ray-Ban Stories glasses had supported a similar feature for Facebook Messenger. The difference lies in the ability of users to reply to text messages at the same time using voice commands only.
“Launching more hands-free features on Ray-Ban Stories today. Now, you can make calls, hear messages read, and send messages via WhatsApp,” Zuckerberg wrote in his post, as quoted by KompasTekno, Friday (15/7/202).
“Later on, you will be able to directly reply to messages (via) Messenger or Whatsapp via voice commands,” he added.
This update aims to integrate the smart glasses into the Meta ecosystem. As has often been echoed before, the company is continuously working towards becoming a virtual enterprise and relying on its augmented reality (AR) products.
Possibly, this strategy was chosen by Meta to “replace” AR glasses that were not sold commercially. Thus, Meta prefers to utilize existing products to develop audio features that focus on AR technology.
Meta’s first smart glasses These smart glasses will be produced in a partnership between Facebook and EssilorLuxottica, the company that makes Ray-Band Stories glasses.
As the first smart glasses product, in terms of design, the shape does not have a significant difference with sunglasses in general. However, in terms of features, there are the addition of two cameras, three built-in microphones, to speakers.
Zuckerberg said that users can take videos and listen to music and podcasts or take calls without having to take the phone out of their pocket.
Ray-Ban Stories will come with a pair of 5 mega pixel (MP) cameras located at each end of the front eyeglass frame.
The camera can be used to take photos and videos with a maximum duration of 30 seconds. This can be done by pressing a button or Facebook’s voice assistant to give orders.
This pair of cameras will later be equipped with an LED flash, which will fire when the user takes a picture or takes a video. The light emitted aims to tell people around that the user is taking pictures or videos.
These smart glasses can also be linked directly to the new Facebook View app. The app is already available on iOS and Android. This is intended to make it easier for users to upload content captured by Ray-Ban Stories to mobile phones.
The Facebook View also gives users access to upload images or videos taken to other platforms, such as Instagram, Whatsapp, Messenger, Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat, and many more.
The Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses are also equipped with Beamforming technology and a special algorithm that can reduce noise around the user’s area.
Ray-Ban Stories products will likely only be available in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Australia markets. However, the markets that will definitely sell this product are the US, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Italy and the UK only.
Meanwhile, the price set by Meta for these smart glasses is around US$299 or Rp. 4.2 million, as KompasTekno summarized from The Verge, Friday (14/7/2022). It is also not known whether Meta will launch this product in other regions, such as Indonesia.
