In Meta’s CTO’s leaked memo, he referenced the company’s plan to launch “half a dozen more AI powered wearables”.
Andrew Bosworth’s memo, which was leaked to Business Insider after apparently being shared with all Reality Labs staff back in November, was a rallying cry for 2025. In it, he told staff that this year will determine whether its hardware & metaverse division is “the work of visionaries or a legendary misadventure”.
But buried within the memo is also the mention of Meta’s plan to launch half a dozen, six, more “AI powered wearables”, seemingly referencing this year. So what could these be?
David Heaney
Oakley Meta Glasses
Two weeks ago, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Meta and EssilorLuxottica plan to expand their smart glasses product lineup later this year with Oakley Meta glasses.
Gurman has a fairly strong track record of reporting Meta’s moves in advance.
David Heaney
While the Ray-Ban glasses have a camera on one side and are aimed towards all consumers, the Oakley glasses would have the camera in the center and be intended for “cyclists and other athletes”, Gurman said.
HUD Glasses
The Verge, The Information, The Financial Times, and Gurman have all previously reported that Meta intends to release smart glasses with a heads-up display (HUD), codenamed Hypernova, later this year.
It’s still unclear whether or not these glasses will carry the Ray-Ban brand, but what is known is that they will include a small waveguide display on one of the lenses to show notifications, output text instead of audio from the Meta AI assistant, and to help frame photos before taking them.
David Heaney
In the same report in which he described the Oakley Meta glasses, Gurman says that Meta employees are telling him to expect Hypernova to cost around $1000. Further, he says Meta “has discussed” including the EMG wristband (demoed with the Orion prototype) in the box of Hypernova, with a backup plan of using touch controls on the temple like its other smart glasses.
The Neural Wristband
As mentioned, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Meta’s HUD glasses may come with Meta’s neural wristband.
Meta has been working on this wristband since at least 2019, when it acquired a startup called CTRL Labs, and at Meta Connect 2024 it demoed its latest version of the band as the input device for the Orion AR glasses to select press and influencers.
The neural wristband leverages a technology called electromyography (EMG) that can track subtle finger movements by sensing muscle activation in your wrist.
In practice, this lets the wearer use their thumb as a virtual D-pad, without the need to be in view of any camera, letting you “swipe, click, and scroll while keeping your arm resting comfortably by your side”. This would even work if your hand was in a jacket pocket, or any other scenario where it’s completely occluded from the glasses.
David Heaney
Around a year ago, Mark Zuckerberg said the neural wristband would ship as a product “in the next few years”.
Meta Buds?
In the same report in which Gurman described the Oakley Meta glasses and the apparent price and input device for Meta’s HUD glasses, Gurman said Meta is also working on an AirPods competitor.
Gurman claims these Camera Buds, as they’re called internally, would “built-in cameras that can see the outside world and take action using AI”.
However, he also says there have been “snags” with the device’s development. “It’s harder for people with long hair to use the device”, he writes, and Meta is still unsatisfied with the angle of the cameras. For these reasons, and because development is still early, Gurman expects Meta’s earbuds “likely wouldn’t hit the market for a couple of years”.
A Smartwatch?
Back in 2021, The Verge’s Alex Heath reported that Meta was working on a smartwatch. The device was said to have two cameras: one on the front for video calling, and one on the rear to be used as an action camera, as the main watch body would have been easily detachable from its frame.
Heath’s report said Meta planned to launch the watch in summer 2022 with a price of around $350. But just as that summer arrived, Bloomberg reported that Meta had canceled the watch, in a report that included apparent images of it.
According to Bloomberg, the reason behind the cancelation was that the company discovered that the rear camera would have made it impossible to add neural sensing, electromyography (EMG), in future versions, which was its long-term plan.
Two and a half years later, in the same report in which Mark Gurman described the Oakley Meta glasses and the apparent price and input device for Meta’s HUD glasses, Gurman said that Meta had restarted work on a smartwatch.
“Meta is now again weighing the idea of releasing a watch as early as this year — with a display that would be able to show photos taken with the company’s smart glasses”, Gurman wrote.
What Else?
So far we’ve listed five likely candidates for hardware Bosworth was referring to. It’s possible his mention of “half a dozen” was rough, rather than meaning precisely six, and these are all
But could there be something else on Meta’s hardware roadmap that no one has yet predicted? We’ll keep a close eye on the company for any hints or leaks at its hardware roadmap for 2025.
