Facebook and RayBan smartglasses are its next hardware release

Facebook’s Ray Ban smartglasses are still on their way, Mark Zuckerberg has revealed in an earnings call.

“Looking ahead here, the next product release will be the launch of our first smart glasses from Ray-Ban in partnership with EssilorLuxottica,” said the Facebook CEO. “The glasses have their iconic form factor, and they let you do some pretty neat things.”

We still don’t have details on exactly what neat things these smartglasses will do, but we do know they won’t be full AR.

We first reported on rumors of a RayBan/Facebook collaboration back in 2019.

We still don’t have a clear release date, and it’s touch-and-go whether Facebook would be able to release in 2021.

Facebook is also working on AR specs, known as Project Aria, but its partnership with EssilorLuxottica is designed to be a stepping stone on the way.

Facebook has ruled out the use of AR or any kind of display on the Ray Ban partnership – so that pretty much leaves a Snap Spectacles style device, possibly with cameras. Or so we think. We can already hear the privacy arguments already.

This means that, rather than adding a virtual layer to your day to day interactions with AR specs, smart specs will offer much simpler functionality.

“These glasses won’t be an AR device, so it’s likely that they’ll use audio or cameras but won’t offer any kind of heads-up display to a user,” Leo Gebbie, a senior analyst for XR and Wearables at CCS Insight explains.

This will make them very similar to what’s on offer from Snap’s Spectacles, but with the style points of a Ray-Ban tie-in.

“Facebook is clearly aiming to make its smartglasses products fashionable as well as functional,” Gebbie says. “Bringing an established eyewear player like Ray-Ban on board seems like a sensible move.”

We’ll bring you more information as we get it.

Via: The Verge