At Meta Connect 2026 on September 23, Meta announced Ray-Ban Meta Audio, a pair of smart glasses with no camera. Prices in the US start at $349. Preorders opened on the day of the announcement, and shipping begins on October 13.
The Ray-Ban Meta series has centered on taking photos and videos. Audio adds a new option that puts music, calls and voice-based AI first. Without a camera, the glasses can no longer be used to photograph people around you without their knowledge. But the microphones that pick up your voice and send it to the AI are still there. What changes with the camera gone is the kind of information the glasses collect and process.
What Meta removed, and what it kept
Ray-Ban Meta Audio lets you listen to music and podcasts through speakers built into the frame, answer phone calls, and talk to an AI assistant by voice. Meta also lists everyday conversation translation as one use for its AI glasses. The open-ear audio design lets you hear your surroundings, so the glasses are meant to be worn for long stretches in place of earbuds.
Because there is no camera, the glasses cannot take photos or video. Audio alone also cannot use features that rely on the camera to capture an object or text in front of you and have the AI identify it.
In earlier Ray-Ban Meta models, shooting video and letting the AI understand visual information from the camera were part of the product's value. Audio separates those out and focuses on listening and voice control. A traveler who wants the AI to read signs and menus and a commuter who mainly wants music, calls and voice AI are likely to need different models.
Meta also announced Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 3), a model that emphasizes camera features. It has a 12MP camera and supports 3K video. The frame includes an LED that signals to people nearby when it is recording.
Audio is therefore not a successor that replaces the camera models. Meta has split the lineup so buyers can choose depending on whether they need a camera.
Meta also says Gen 3 uses six microphones to reduce background noise by more than 90%. That figure was published for Gen 3 and does not describe Audio's microphone performance. Both are voice-capable smart glasses, but the specifications published so far are not equally detailed for each.
43g and up to 12 hours: what changes without the camera
Audio weighs 43g. Meta calls it the lightest and thinnest of its AI glasses. The temple tips that rest on the ears are adjustable, and the nose pads can be adjusted or replaced.
There are 23 combinations of lenses and colors, in two frame shapes: Clubmaster and Burbank. Prescription lenses are supported. Since these are glasses meant to be worn for hours, the design focuses on comfort as well as electronic performance.
Meta says that by the end of the year it will offer more than 100 eyewear options across Ray-Ban, Oakley and its own brand. Audio's 23 variations are part of that expansion. Alongside frame shape and color, whether the glasses include a camera is now a choice too.
Audio's rated battery life is up to 12 hours on the glasses alone and up to 48 hours with additional charges from the included case. The camera-equipped Gen 3 lasts up to 9 hours and starts at $449. Audio is $100 cheaper and has a rated on-glasses runtime three hours longer. Gen 2, released in 2025, lasted up to 8 hours.
These are all manufacturer ratings, not independent comparisons measured under identical conditions for music playback, calls and AI use. Nor can Audio's longer battery life simply be attributed to the missing camera.
The $349 price also does not make it Meta's cheapest AI glasses. Meta Adventurer, a separate brand announced at the same event, starts at $249 and does include a camera.
Audio's price should be read not as a reflection of feature count or low cost alone, but as the price of Ray-Ban-brand frames and a voice-centered way of using them.
In its June Meta Glasses announcement, Meta introduced Adventurer as one of the series and described the photo and video features common to the lineup. The new $249 colorway announced in September is also Adventurer, so the camera-free Audio costs $100 more.
The lineup does not follow a simple logic in which removing one component makes a product cheaper. Brand, frame shape and needed features all have to be compared together.
In Japan, Gen 2 went on sale in May, starting at ¥73,700 including tax. Japanese pricing and a release date for Audio had not been given as of the September 23 announcement.
TechCrunch's article gives October 13 as the preorder start date, but Meta's product announcement says preorders begin on the day of the announcement and that October 13 is when shipping starts. Meta's official announcement is the better basis for purchase timing.
The risk that disappears, and the voice data that remains
For camera-equipped smart glasses, one privacy safeguard has been a way for people nearby to notice that recording is under way.
Meta says the LED lights up during capture and the camera stops if the LED is detected as covered. It has also announced an update that stops recording if the LED is physically tampered with.
However, a mechanism that alerts people when recording and not having a recording function at all mean different things for privacy. Audio has no camera, so the path for capturing still images or video is gone entirely.
The microphones used for translation and AI conversation remain.
According to Meta's explanation of its translation feature, audio picked up by the built-in microphones is sent to Meta AI, and translated audio is played back through the open-ear speakers. In other words, reduced concern about filming is a separate matter from how conversation audio is handled. If you use translation in a conversation, the other person's voice may also be captured as input.
This article confirms the presence of a camera and the intended uses from Meta's product announcement, and sorts out differences in the data handled using the company's published explanations of its LED safeguards and translation feature.
But the announcement materials reviewed here do not say how many microphones Audio has, how long collected audio is retained, or how much processing happens on the device.
The question of whether audio can be recorded and saved should also be kept separate from the question of whether audio is sent to servers for translation or AI interactions.
People who find reassurance in the absence of a camera should check which features activate the microphones and where the audio is processed.
Meta's translation explanation covers its AI glasses in general and does not guarantee that Audio will offer the same languages and features in every country and region. Judging voice privacy will require checking the specific terms of use published for Audio.
Muse integration, and a time lag in Japan
Meta also positions its smart glasses as devices for reaching its AI agent Muse by voice.
Muse launched on September 8 on iOS, Android and the web in the US. It can handle tasks such as sending email and buying products, and Meta says users choose which apps to connect and which permissions to grant.
However, Meta's Muse announcement says support for AI glasses is coming "soon." That Audio ships on October 13 does not mean every announced Muse feature will be usable from the glasses at that point.
Muse assigns each user a virtual machine in the cloud that processes conversations and data from connected services. Meta says it will offer a setting to opt out of having data used for AI training, and plans to introduce, within the year, a "Confidential VM" to which only the user holds the key.
According to Meta, a separate monitoring agent checks Muse's outbound communications, and the user is asked to confirm before important actions such as sending email or making a purchase. Permissions for connected services can be changed or revoked later, and the action history can be reviewed.
These are designs and future plans as described by Meta, not the results of third-party verification of how Muse behaves when used from smart glasses. Features planned for later should also be kept distinct from protections available at launch.
The absence of a camera does not remove the need to manage what information you give to Muse.
For users in Japan, availability by region is another key condition. The existing Gen 2 and Oakley Meta are sold in Japan, but Audio's domestic release date and yen price have not been announced.
Once there is more information on real-world battery life and call quality with Audio, plus data handling and regional availability for Muse and translation, it will be easier to judge whether smart glasses can replace earbuds for people who don't need a camera.