Meta is opening up development for its smart glasses with an integrated display, giving third-party developers a chance to build new software for the $800 wearable. The company said developers can create experiences that use the monocular display and Neural Band wrist controller, with support for connected iOS and Android apps or web apps.
The glasses use a 20-degree field-of-view display, making the experience much more limited than standalone AR headsets. Meta is guiding developers toward lightweight features that work well within that smaller viewing space. In a company update, it described “information overlays” as a good fit and shared an early prototype called “Darkroom Buddy,” which acts as a quick visual guide for developing photographic film.
Meta sees the glasses supporting features such as media controls, real-time updates like sports scores, and other lightweight “micro-app” experiences. The company’s demo included several mini-games, including chess, snake, and a brick breaker-style title. The glasses already ship with one first-party puzzle game.
Letting outside developers build apps could help fix one of the biggest issues people had with the glasses after launch: they just didn’t do much. Meta has added features like a teleprompter and handwriting recognition over time, but a lot of early users still felt boxed in by the limited software. Cooking became a good example of that problem, since the only way to see a recipe on the display was by asking Meta AI instead of using a proper recipe app. Big cooking platforms probably won’t jump in right away, but at least the option is there now.
It’s still not clear when people will actually get to use third-party apps on the glasses. Meta opened up support for apps on its non-display Ray-Ban Stories glasses last year too, but not many have shown up yet. Battery life is also a big question, since features that rely heavily on the display already use up power pretty fast, and extra apps could make that even worse.
The announcement comes as Meta continues to expand its ambitions in smart eyewear. The company recently confirmed dates for its next Connect conference, where further updates to its smart glasses plans are expected, while CEO Mark Zuckerberg has hinted at a future model that could serve as the next generation of the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses.
Meta is rolling out several updates for current glasses owners. The “neural handwriting” feature, which allows users to respond to messages by tracing letters with a finger, is now available to all users. Display recording is also being added, giving wearers the ability to capture both the in-glasses display and their surrounding view in video recordings. In addition, live captioning is coming to calls on Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
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