Meta is betting that people who never warmed to bulky virtual reality headsets will try VR if it looks more like a pair of glasses. At its annual Connect developer conference in Menlo Park, California, on Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced the Meta VR Glasses, a slimmer device priced at $1,299 that the company plans to start selling in spring 2027.
Zuckerberg said the glasses weigh about 100 grams, light enough to be compared with an ordinary pair of frames. They connect to an external puck that holds a Qualcomm processor and the battery, which lets the eyewear itself stay small. Sensors track the wearer’s eyes and hands, cutting down on the need for handheld controllers, and Meta says the displays look sharper than those in its older Quest headsets.
“We have built a new kind of VR device that delivers the same magical feeling of presence and immersion, high-resolution displays and views of the world around you in a form factor that is a pair of glasses for the first time,” Zuckerberg said, according to CNBC.
Fewer devices, bigger leaps
The glasses are Meta’s first new VR hardware since 2024, when it released the $299 Quest 3S. Zuckerberg acknowledged that the company has stepped back from its earlier metaverse push.
“We made the decision to focus a little bit less on metaverse for now; build fewer VR devices and only release them when we have real breakthroughs,” he said, as quoted by Fortune. “We’ve also heard that a lot of people are less interested in wearing a headset. So, we’ve built a new kind of VR device.”
Meta is pitching the glasses for watching movies, gaming and spatial computing. A promotional video showed YouTuber Casey Neistat and NBA player Draymond Green trying them, including watching a basketball game while switching between apps. Fortune noted that the product appears aimed at Apple’s Vision Pro, a headset that costs around $3,700 and has struggled to catch on with consumers, partly because of its size and weight.
A keychain for the Muse agent
Zuckerberg closed the keynote with a surprise: the Muse Charm, a small handheld gadget that can hang from a keychain and gives users quick access to Muse, the AI personal agent Meta released recently. The device includes a real-time voice mode, letting people talk to their agent “without having to unlock a phone or open an app,” he said.
“If you’re not wearing glasses, this is going to be by far the fastest way to talk to your Muse and to show it what’s going on around you,” Zuckerberg said.
He did not announce a price. Zuckerberg said only a handful of working units exist so far and that Meta still needs to “finalize laying out the components,” but the company is aiming to ship the Charm in time for the holidays in December, CNBC reported. Fortune said the Muse app had climbed to No. 1 on Apple’s U.S. App Store in the days before the event.
“Delivering personal superintelligence is now within reach,” Zuckerberg told the audience. “Soon, everyone is going to have an extremely capable personal agent that understands your goals and can work 24/7 on your behalf.”
New smart glasses, including one without a camera
Meta’s smart glasses, which Fortune describes as the most popular on the market, also got updates. The third-generation Ray-Ban Meta glasses have slimmer frames, about an hour more battery life, a new button dedicated to AI features and additional styles, among them an Aviator shape and a cat-eye frame called Zena, according to Tom’s Guide.
Meta also introduced Ray-Ban Meta Audio, its first smart glasses with no camera, offered in Ray-Ban’s Clubmaster and Burbank styles. The camera-free design arrives as the company faces continued questions about privacy and recording in public.
Other announcements included a hearing enhancement feature for Meta’s glasses, described as FDA-approved over-the-counter software for adults with mild to moderate hearing loss, which will cost extra unless users have a Meta One subscription. Meta’s Display glasses, which put a small screen in the right lens, will gain cycling and public transit directions in the U.S. and Canada.
The wider market for AI-equipped eyewear is growing quickly. Research firm Counterpoint estimates global shipments of AI glasses rose 263% year over year in the first half of 2026, according to Tom’s Guide.
Sources
- CNBC: Mark Zuckerberg debuts $1,299 Meta VR Glasses and Muse Charm pendant as part of AI agent push
- Fortune: Meta announces new lightweight virtual reality glasses to one-up Apple's Vision Pro
- Tom's Guide: Meta Connect 2026 recap: new VR glasses, Muse Charm, Ray-Ban Meta gen 3, audio-only smart glasses
