The new smart glasses are known as “Ray-Ban Stories” with Facebook branding prominent on the retail packaging of the product. However, Facebook’s name doesn’t appear anywhere on the glasses. The leak reveals three types of frame types for the new smart glasses – Round, Meteor, and Wayfarer.
The Ray-Ban Stories lineup could have integration with apps like Facebook and Instagram
All three frames look identical to their classic versions barring two cameras on the left and right hinge, respectively. The top right temple of the glasses has a single button, which we assume is used as a shutter button for photos and videos. The new smart glasses don’t have a screen, which leaves out AR-related functionality. However, Facebook is working on “full augmented reality glasses” while also developing more advanced AR glasses for the future. The Ray-Ban Stories lineup looks fairly identical to Snap’s Spectacles, barring the distinctive Ray-Ban design. There’s still a lot that we don’t know about the new Facebook/Ray-Ban collaboration, though we expect to learn more later today. We first learned about Facebook’s partnership with Luxottica (parent company of Ray-Ban) back in 2019. Although the product pitched back then had its own small screen and the ability to answer phone calls without a phone, it seems like the company has postponed those plans. Facebook’s new smart glasses could allow uploading photos and videos on its own app or even apps like Instagram. While there’s no information on pricing, it could cost around $400 to take on Snap’s Spectacles 3. It’s clear that Facebook’s primary competition in the segment is Snap which unveiled its smart glasses with AR displays earlier this year. In addition to the dual-camera setup, these glasses also featured AR displays, four microphones, two stereo speakers, and a touchpad. However, Snap’s AR glasses are not available commercially. Creators can request to get one by filling a form on the Spectacles website. Meanwhile, Snap unveiled the third iteration of Spectacles in late 2019 with a price tag of $380. It packs 4GB of flash storage which can store up to 100 3D videos or 1,200 3D photos.
