Meta Connect 2026: everything Meta announced, from VR Glasses to Muse

Meta held Connect 2026 on Sept. 23 and 24, and it used the keynote to show how far its bet on glasses now reaches: from a $249 pair of Meta Glasses to a $1,299.99 VR headset shaped like glasses, with its new AI agent, Muse, meant to connect them all. Here is everything Meta announced, with links to its own posts, what you can buy now and what is still to come.

This recap is based on Meta's official announcements. Where a detail comes from press coverage, we say so.

Everything at a glance

Meta VR Glasses

The headline device was Meta VR Glasses, which Meta calls "our most advanced device yet." They weigh about 100 grams, and Meta says they're five times lighter than Meta Quest 3 because the battery, processor and storage live in a puck you clip to a pocket or bag, connected by an optical tether. The displays are micro-OLED panels Meta calls its 5K Infinite Display, with 37 pixels per degree, and the puck runs Qualcomm's new Snapdragon Reality Elite chip with up to three hours of high-resolution video playback per charge.

Meta pitched them first as a personal cinema, a courtside seat and a workspace, with gaming in the mix. They are the first IMAX Enhanced certified VR device, Disney+ starts streaming some movies in 3D in November in select countries, and Peacock, HBO Max and Paramount+ are offering their 3D catalogs. Meta promised more than 100 live immersive sports events a year with partners including ESPN, MLB, NBC Sports, TNT Sports and UFC, multiple virtual screens with any table turned into a keyboard and touchpad, more than 75 games playable with just your hands, and hologram calling, a photorealistic version of you for video calls in apps from WhatsApp to Zoom.

Road to VR added details from Meta's briefings: the glasses come in two sizes, store 128GB with microSD expansion up to 1TB, support Quest's Touch Plus controllers without including them, and are meant to launch in 25 countries and regions. On Sept. 24, Meta also announced a $1 million developer competition for apps that work on the glasses, Road to VR reported. Our Meta VR Glasses guide has the full specs, and if you're deciding between them and a Quest, our Quest 3 and Quest 3S guide compares all three.

Two new Ray-Bans and cheaper Meta Glasses

Meta and EssilorLuxottica introduced two Ray-Ban models side by side:

• Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 3), from $449, comes in Aviator, a new cat-eye style called Zena and Wayfarer, with 27 color and lens combinations. It gets up to nine hours of battery, an hour more than Gen 2, a six-microphone array that Meta says cuts more than 90% of background noise, a 12MP camera with 3K video, dynamic photos and a customizable action button. Meta also announced a limited-edition Aviator for the style's 90th anniversary, which Engadget reported starts at $579.
• Ray-Ban Meta Audio, from $349, is Meta's first pair without a camera: 43 grams, up to 12 hours of battery plus 48 more from the case, in Clubmaster and Burbank with 23 combinations.

The Meta Glasses line, launched in June, added a $249 Meta Adventurer with a plug-in case, an Ivory version of the Starfire style designed with Kylie Jenner, a collection with LISA, two new shapes called Capri and Nova, a limited Meta Fury sold only at Connect and Meta Lab stores at launch, and a Mix & Match program for picking your own frame, lenses and case. Meta Glasses are also expanding to Singapore, South Korea and Mexico, with Brazil and the United Arab Emirates on the list, while Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta head to 11 more markets later this year. Meta says it will offer more than 100 AI glasses styles by the end of 2026. We compared the two Ray-Bans in Gen 3 or Audio: which to get.

New features for AI glasses

Meta listed a long set of software updates, most rolling out "in the coming months":

• Hearing enhancement, FDA-cleared software for adults with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss that you set up at home. It launches in the US later this year for $149.99, eligible for HSA and FSA reimbursement, or as part of a Meta One subscription. Engadget reported it comes first to Meta Glasses and later to Gen 3 and Audio.
• Audio balance and mono audio for every pair.
• Video recording with Dolby Atmos spatial sound.
• Dynamic photos, which take several frames and let Meta AI suggest the best, and a landscape crop mode.
• Private Processing on glasses, which Meta says delivers AI features "without anyone, including Meta, seeing your data."
• Richer detailed responses when you ask what you're looking at, shaped by feedback from blind and low-vision users.
• Guided running and cycling workouts, nutrition tracking, and shopping help that identifies products, prices and reviews.
• Walking directions based on landmarks, such as "turn left at the supermarket," and a customizable press-and-hold shortcut on the touchpad.

Meta Ray-Ban Display goes international

Meta's display glasses, a $799 US-only product since their 2025 launch, became available to order online for the first time and expanded to the UK, Canada, France, Italy and Germany. Road to VR listed the prices at £749 in the UK, CA$1,149 in Canada and €899 in the three European markets. New features include cycling and public transit directions in the US and Canada, walking directions that point to landmarks, a calendar where you can accept invites and join meetings, mirrored phone notifications, an on-glasses app called Explore for finding new experiences, and Hologram, a photorealistic likeness driven by your voice for WhatsApp calls, entering Early Access in the US this fall.

Muse comes to glasses, eventually

Muse, the personal agent Meta launched on Sept. 8, was the software thread through the keynote. Meta said it will bring Muse to its AI glasses "in the coming months": you'll say your agent's name, and it will act on what you're looking at, like a product on a shelf or a flier on a wall. Meta also showed a voice mode for long conversations, a real-time avatar, an email address for your Muse, computer use in Muse for Mac, and new connectors from Walmart, Best Buy, Sephora, Instacart, Notion and others. A small device called Muse Charm, built for talking to your agent, will get more details later this year. We explained what Muse will actually do in this guide.

For developers

On Sept. 24, Meta's developer keynote focused on three ways to build for AI glasses. The Wearables Device Access Toolkit reached version 1.0 after a year in preview, letting phone apps use the glasses' camera, voice commands through "Hey Meta" and head motion. Web apps for Meta Ray-Ban Display got a UI toolkit and a browser-based simulator. And Meta AI connectors, in early access, let any service with an API plug into Meta AI. For the first time, curated experiences will be discoverable on Meta Ray-Ban Display and in the Meta AI app, starting "soon."

What Connect 2026 tells us

Meta now treats glasses as a spectrum rather than a single product. "It reads like glasses, so we wanted to have it in the spectrum of glasses that go from audio to full immersive VR Glasses," Meta's vice president of VR, Ryan Cairns, told Road to VR. The range now runs from $249 to $1,299.99, and there was no new Quest.

It also gave buyers a way around the camera. It announced Ray-Ban Meta Audio two weeks before Norway's government said it wants a temporary ban on smart glasses in places like parks, beaches, museums and shopping malls, a proposal driven by the risk of people being filmed or photographed without their consent, Road to VR reported. We looked at the wider pushback in our analysis.

And much of what Meta showed is still a promise. Of the nine items in the table above, at least four could be bought within a month of the keynote. Muse on glasses, hearing enhancement, holograms, Dolby Atmos capture and the developer storefronts all carry phrases like "coming months," "later this year" or "soon," and VR Glasses won't ship until spring.