• by Colin Kirkland , 5 hours ago

As Meta continues to unveil additional styles and functionality for its Ray-Ban Smart Glasses product, the tech giant has announced its most expansive hardware push to date, now offering the Ray-Ban device in Mexico, the UAE, and India.  

According to a report by Upload VR, this launch makes Meta’s AI-powered Ray-Ban glasses available in 18 countries across the globe.

Although Meta’s Quest headsets -- the company’s other major wearable technology -- are sold in more than 18 countries, India’s massive population will exponentially expand the reach of its smart glasses.

Since December, when Meta integrated new real-time AI capabilities -- such as live language translations and music identification -- its Ray-Ban smart glasses have become a top-selling product for the company, even helping its Reality Labs division exceed recent quarterly projections. 

In 2024, the company’s EsillorLuxottica wearable became the top-selling glasses brand in 60% of all Ray-Ban stores across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

By adding these three new regions, Meta is tripling the product’s market reach. 

The glasses will include Meta AI -- the company’s live AI chatbot functionality -- in these new regions as well.

Meta also plans to bring a 3D display to the product, which would “show notifications or responses from Meta AI,” according to a recent report. 

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that he believes smart glasses will eventually replace smartphones and all handheld devices as the population’s main everyday device. This is why the company is also planning to release new smart glasses in partnership with sports retailer Oakley later this year, marketing the technology to specific swaths of consumers.

Other companies are competing as well, with Apple launching its first-gen AR headset, and Snapchat developing its own AR wearables, called “Spectacles.”