Meta & Oakley Drop Game-Changing Smart Glasses This Summer – Your Face Will Never Be the Same

Tech giants Meta and Oakley just blindsided the wearables market with a surprise summer launch. Their collab could redefine how we see AR—literally.

Digital eyewear gets a steroid injection

These aren't your granddad's Google Glass knockoffs. Leaked specs suggest 120Hz microOLED displays, LiDAR spatial mapping, and—because why not—built-in crypto wallets (Visa won't be happy).

Wall Street yawns, Silicon Valley drools

Analysts predict another 'metaverse solution' searching for a problem. Meanwhile, early adopters are already mortgaging their NFTs to pre-order. The glasses reportedly accept Bitcoin payments—because nothing says 'future' like spending digital currency on hardware that'll be obsolete by Black Friday.

Competition in AI eyewear is heating up

Meta’s partnership with Ray-Ban and Oakley extends over several years. To date, Meta Ray-Bans have sold more than two million pairs. EssilorLuxottica, the owner of Rayban and Oakley, has said it aims to ship ten million smart-glass units with Meta’s software each year by 2026.

Other tech firms are also working on smart glasses. In May, Alphabet agreed to invest $150 million with Warby Parker to develop frames that use Google’s Gemini AI. Snap has said it will introduce its sixth-generation augmented-reality glasses next year as part of a wider push to add AI features to eyewear.

Meanwhile, Meta has revealed WhatsApp is about to feature ads for the first time. The app’s original creators had pledged to keep the service free of advertising, but starting this summer, users around the globe will encounter three distinct ad formats—none of which will intrude on private, end-to-end–encrypted conversations.

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