Review: Meta Glasses Nova (Gen 3)

I’ve been on a call with my insurance provider for over an hour when the fire alarm in my apartment starts blaring. The sound is extraordinarily loud, piercing through the entire building. It overwhelms the voice on the other line, which comes through the speakers of my new Meta Nova smart glasses.

I manage to dart outside, keep the call going, and eventually learn this is a false alarm. I breathe a sigh of relief, but the helpful human on the other end sounds very worried and asks if I’m OK. Turns out, they hadn’t heard the sirens at all, just me screeching, “OH JESUS WHAT IS HAPPENING?” The six-mic system on Meta’s new smart glasses does quite a good job of culling background noise over calls. I hadn’t expected to try that feature out in that way, but I can confirm it works.

This may not be a use case that would inspire someone to buy a new pair of Meta’s smart glasses. Especially not its camera-equipped ones, which have become prime targets of controversy about them being used by creeps and abusers. (Meta launched camera-free audio-only glasses, but we haven't tested them yet.)

In fact, none of the upgrades in Meta’s new Gen 3 glasses are revolutionary. The glasses get nine hours of battery life, one more than the previous generation. They have a superior mic array—though identical to the Meta Glasses that debuted in June—a dedicated button for Meta’s AI assistant, and a slimmer, lighter fit that comes in dozens of color and frame combinations. They have the same 12-MP cameras that can capture 3K video as the Gen 2 models.

Photograph: Courtesy of Meta

Photograph: Courtesy of Meta

The pair of glasses I’ve been using are the Meta-designed, non-Ray-Ban-branded Meta Nova glasses. You can also shop styles like the Adventurer Lisa or Capri editions. (The Ray-Ban-branded Gen 3 models are more expensive, starting at $499.) The Nova comes with much of the same software for $299. They have translucent brown frames and rounded lenses and are the first pair of Meta glasses I’ve worn that I feel actually look decent on my face.

The camera housing on my Meta Nova glasses is smaller than on the Gen 2 glasses. From a distance, they might even read as rivets at a glance. (I asked my colleague Reece Rogers how they looked on my face, and from a few feet away in the WIRED office, he didn’t even notice they were camera-enabled glasses at first.)

They feel and function the same as before. You can interact with an AI assistant or snap photos and video with the press of a button. Conversation Focus, a mode that helps hard-of-hearing people better pick up spoken words, is a feature that only works in early access on Meta’s Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses. It seems very helpful, but my Meta-designed frames don’t have it yet.

They also don’t have integration with Meta’s Muse AI, which the company says is coming later this year. I’m intrigued by that, even if having access to a camera on your face will certainly help a service that seems better at surveilling than helping its users. That said, I’ve found Muse more useful than Meta’s current AI assistant, and I look forward to asking my entirely too cute AI buddy to assist me via my glasses.

Unfortunately, Meta’s current AI assistant on the glasses is still terrible. I tried to ask what features the glasses I was wearing had, and it failed miserably. The AI couldn’t get any of the details right, even when I told it specifically which frames I was wearing and let it snap a picture of the Meta product page for reference. I wouldn’t want to depend on the AI to help me sort out anything with some real complexity.

If you pretty much ignore the AI entirely, the Gen 3 glasses do just about everything Meta promises. They capture nice photos and video, all while maintaining an indicator light that has recently been made more tamper-proof. (That’s not necessarily enough to deter the creeps.) The frames are wearable, and the software is competent enough. They’re also pricey, so maybe you can save some cash sticking with the Gen 2. They’ll all do what you probably expect them to do. Just maybe don’t be weird about it, all right?