What is Orion? Meta’s AR glasses explained

When Meta first announced it was building a pair of AR glasses, the company was still called Facebook. Five years on, Meta has officially announced Orion, “the most advanced pair of AR glasses ever made”. 

Here’s everything you need to know about Meta’s Orion AR glasses. 

What is Orion? 

Orion is the name of Meta’s first pair of true augmented reality (AR) glasses. The spectacles were officially unveiled at Meta Connect 2024 and were known as codename Project Nazare during development. 

With Orion, Meta has attempted to combine the look and feel of a regular pair of glasses with the immersive features of AR, with the goal being to bridge the gap between the physical and virtual worlds. 

You might be thinking: hasn’t Meta released a pair of smart glasses already? And you’d be right. Orion, however, takes the experience a step further than Meta’s Ray-Ban collab. 

“Ray-Ban Meta glasses have demonstrated the power of giving people hands-free access to key parts of their digital lives from their physical ones. We can talk to a smart AI assistant, connect with friends, and capture the moments that matter—all without ever having to pull out a phone. These stylish glasses fit seamlessly into our everyday lives, and people absolutely love them”, said Meta on its Meta Quest blog. 

“Yet while Ray-Ban Meta opened up an entirely new category of display-less glasses super-charged by AI, the XR industry has long dreamt of true AR glasses—a product that combines the benefits of a large holographic display and personalized AI assistance in a comfortable, stylish, all-day wearable form factor”. 

Orion is packed with new technologies, according to Meta, including “the most advanced AR display ever assembled” and custom silicon that fuels these AR experiences while requiring less power and weight than a mixed-reality headset. 

The chunky black glasses are intended to be worn with a woven EMG wristband that allows you to swipe, click and scroll as your arm remains comfortably by your side. They also come with a Wireless Compute Puck, which takes some of the processing load of the glasses and enables them to be slimmer and last longer between charges. 

Meta hasn’t announced a release date or price for Orion, with the company only promising that the AR glasses will begin shipping in the near future.