Meta Connect 2024: Orion, Quest 3S, and new features for the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses

During the Meta Connect 2024, the company made several announcements about its consumer devices: the Quest headsets, the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, and the Orion true AR glasses proof-of-concept preview. Expectedly, the show was stolen by the Orion glasses, which can be controlled using voice prompts and a 'neural interface', a wristband that enables the wearer to navigate apps in Orion through gestures rather than commands. Reportedly, the wristband will be compatible with Meta's other AR products.

Since Orion is still an early-stage product, specifics are scarce, but the device will evidently be marketed as a competitor to Snap's Spectacles. Meta already claims that Orion features the largest field of view in the smallest footprint to date, which the company claims will serve as the perfect stage for multitasking windows, entertainment, and most notably, life-size holograms of people. As is common with these kinds of devices, they will first become available to developers only.

In the meantime, Meta continues its push to make smart eyewear the next consumer device by introducing a more affordable alternative to its Quest 3 headset and discontinuing the Quest 2 and Pro headsets. The Meta Quest 3S starts at $299 for a 128GB version and 256GB for $399 and will ship starting October 15. Perhaps to distract from the fact that it is a whopping $200 cheaper than Quest 3, Meta is marketing the device as an affordable upgrade to the devices it is now discontinuing.

Finally, Meta confirmed that AI capabilities and other smart features are coming to the Ray-Ban Meta glasses. The two AI-powered features upcoming to the smart glasses are AI video capabilities and live translation; the remaining features include QR code scanning, reminders, and music streaming service integrations. AI video capabilities will expand the devices' ability to analyze a still picture and describe it to the user or answer questions about it, by making it more natural, and more importantly, work with live action. Moreover, the Ray-Ban Meta glasses will soon be able to translate Spanish, French, or Italian to English in real time for the wearer to listen through the glasses’ open-ear speakers. Meta stated that it plans to support more languages in the future.