Product1 publisher3 min readPublished
Meta demos six-microphone glasses with no camera after the 'pervert glasses' backlash
Meta demoed unreleased audio-only glasses with six microphones and no camera, soon after critics accused it of selling 'pervert glasses.' Leaving out the camera deals with the recording complaint from bystanders, though the Muse voice agent that comes with the glasses mistook conversation for commands in a TechCrunch demo.
The Product Desk · Product desk
What happened
- TechCrunch's reporter tried Meta's still-unreleased audio-only glasses at Connect and found them significantly lighter than any other smart glasses the reporter had worn.
- The pair surfaced not long after critics alleged that Meta's camera-equipped glasses could be used for surveillance.
- The Meta staffer running the demo stressed listening to music and taking phone calls without reaching for a phone as the main uses.
- A Meta researcher said a separate audio-only pair for people with hearing loss will sell for $150, against hearing aids that can cost as much as $1,600.
Compiled by The Product DeskSomething wrong?How this is made
Why it matters
- constraint Without a camera, the Muse pair has to justify itself through audio jobs that earbuds and phones already handle.
- contradiction The press treats the missing camera as a privacy answer while Meta's staff sold audio, so buyers cannot yet treat the design as a Meta commitment on surveillance.
- cost Buyers with hearing loss would pay under a tenth of the top hearing-aid price the researcher cited, provided the $150 pair works outside a demo.
A TechCrunch reporter testing Meta's audio-only glasses at Connect kept turning away to chat with the Meta staffer who had handed them over [7]. Each time, the Muse agent took the remark as a command meant for it and talked over the staffer [7]. The reporter's conclusion was that wearers have to be very direct with the agent and cannot talk to anyone else at the same time [7].
TechCrunch pictured wearers asking Muse to send emails or recite to-do lists while grocery shopping or having a beer [15]. Both are places with other voices in range. People there keep the glasses on while they talk to the people they are with. Spoken commands to Muse are not yet available to the public [6], so the booth demo is the only record of how the agent copes with company.
The privacy case for the pair rests on timing and on TechCrunch's judgement that the missing camera "should go a long way toward easing privacy concerns" [4]. Meta's own staff pitched it on audio [5]. TechCrunch's account does not quote Meta linking the design to the criticism, and it does not include a price or ship date for this pair. A single unreleased product from one company [1] is too little evidence to say how hardware teams in general now weigh surveillance fears.
The second audio-only pair Meta showed has a job a buyer can state in one sentence: make the person in front of you easier to hear. A member of Meta's research team said it had been in development for about five years [9]. Wearers switch between a focused mode that zeroes in on the person in front of them and an omnidirectional mode that takes in sound from all around [11]. TechCrunch cited an estimate of some 50 million Americans with some level of hearing loss [12]. Meta had the reporter put in earplugs to simulate that loss, and the glasses seemed to amplify the voice of the person speaking [14].
For a team deciding whether to cut a sensor, I'd sort the product on two axes. One is whose complaint the cut answers, the wearer's or the bystanders'. The other is whether the job left over can be named and priced. Both Meta pairs answer the bystanders [2][9]. The hearing pair also has a named job and a price [10]. The Muse pair has a pitch built on music and calls [5], plus an agent that still mistakes conversation for commands [7]. I'd ship a sensor cut only when the leftover job holds up on its own. The tradeoff is a narrower device that does one thing and cannot lean on the privacy story to sell. After launch, watch how many wearers still have the glasses on a month after buying them.
What to watch
- A price and ship date for the Muse audio pair, which would show whether it is competing with earbuds or with Meta's camera glasses.
- Whether the public release of Muse voice commands can tell a remark to a companion from a command to the agent.
- Whether Meta's own launch materials tie the camera-free design to the surveillance complaints.