Forget Ray-Bans: The new Meta Oakley smart glasses may interest some users more

Several months ago, reports emerged that Meta was looking to expand beyond its current smart glasses lineup into sportier versions. 

It appears those reports were correct, as an official unveiling of a Meta-Oakley partnership is coming this week. 

Also: I tested the best AR and MR glasses: Here’s how the Meta Ray-Bans stack up

Meta confirmed the upcoming glasses today when an official “Oakley Meta” profile emerged on Instagram. (That account is following the Instagram accounts for Meta, Oakley, Mark Zuckerberg, Rocco Basilico, chief wearables officer at Luxottica, and Caloa Mato, head of global marketing at Oakley.) 

The Oakley brand is owned by EssilorLuxottica, which also owns Ray-Ban. Meta unveiled its collaboration with Ray-Ban for smart glasses two years ago.

The oakleymeta account currently has a single post, a revolving mashup of the Oakley and Meta logos, with a caption of “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. @oakley & @meta, together, amplifying human potential as never done before.” 

The post revealed the date of an apparent official announcement or possible launch — Friday, June 20.

We don’t know any details about the glasses, but a Bloomberg report from earlier this year hinted that they would be targeted toward athletes and could launch this year. That same report detailed that while Meta’s current Ray-Ban glasses have a camera on the temple, the Oakley version will have the camera more in the center, which makes sense for people who are recording athletic videos.

Also: Snapchat’s upcoming AR glasses beat the Meta Ray-Bans in a meaningful way

Neither official images nor a potential price have been revealed. For comparison, Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses cost between $240 and $300, depending on the model. Google is working on its own version, as is Apple. There’s also a third generation of Meta’s glasses in the works, the latest reported to have a built-in display. We probably wouldn’t know more about that until Meta Connect in the fall.

If you want to watch the official announcements, keep your eyes on Meta’s social accounts on Friday. 

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