Meta's New AI Gadget and VR Glasses Want to Replace Your Phone

Meta just held its yearly product showcase, Meta Connect, and the big theme was clear: the company wants AI and screens to live on your face instead of in your pocket. The headliner was the Meta VR Glasses, a pair of chunky black glasses that look ordinary from the outside but display movies, games, and work screens right in front of your eyes. At 100 grams, they weigh about a fifth of Meta's Quest 3 headset, and a small computing puck in your pocket does the heavy lifting. A Verge reporter who tried them said they felt like a featherweight version of Apple's Vision Pro.

The weirder reveal came at the very end: the Muse Charm. It looks like a smartwatch without the strap — a small screen on a lanyard you wear around your neck. Press a fingerprint sensor, start talking, and Meta's Muse AI assistant responds. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said you don't need to unlock a phone or open an app. It has a camera and multiple microphones, so it can see and hear what you do.

Meta also said Muse is coming to its smart glasses, and that you'll soon be able to rent or buy movies directly on Quest headsets — hundreds in the US later this year, thousands worldwide when the VR Glasses launch in spring 2027. Meanwhile, Meta has faced criticism over people secretly recording others with its glasses, which is why a rumored camera-free version was widely anticipated.

The practical takeaway: Meta is betting that talking to AI out loud, hands-free, becomes normal — and that screens you wear beat screens you hold. The catch is that a camera and microphones hanging around your neck raise real privacy questions for everyone nearby, not just the person wearing it.