Meta is one step closer to releasing AR smart glasses with built-in displays. These will not be the Orion smart glasses that the company showed off last year (glasses that reportedly cost $10,000 to make a single pair, but more likely a watered-down version, according to leaked images and videos of the so-called “Meta Ceres” (codenamed “Meta Hypernova”) AR glasses.

X user @Lunayian (via RoadtoVR) shared several images and videos of what they claim are the Cerese smart glasses and their corresponding electromyography (EMG) wristband controller. At first glance, the two devices look like a pair of Ray-Ban Meta AI smart glasses and a Whoop fitness band. Having tried the impressive Orion prototype last year, these images appear to show frames that are slimmer and more stylish, and a wristband controller that’s more refined and subtle.

Meta Hypernova and Ceres Wristband (low res) pic.twitter.com/N1QS28A5ef

— Luna (@Lunayian) June 30, 2025

All of the media was reportedly discovered in “early firmware.” Ceres could be Meta’s first pair of AR smart glasses capable of replacing—or more likely semi-replacing—your phone. Here’s that EMG band in action, showing a pinching gesture. Purported marketing copy says that you should be able to feel a buzz on your wrist when the “band detects a gesture.” The X user also said the wristband may support handwriting; Meta is reportedly testing the feature, but it may not ship at launch.

Meta Ceres EMG Wristband (FP Recording) pic.twitter.com/vDOYUtVnxY

— Luna (@Lunayian) June 30, 2025

There’s also a touch-sensitive panel on the temples of Celeste where a user can touch to capture photos and video.

The input to capture image/video. https://t.co/RSJIqAlLAO pic.twitter.com/vkgvofIL5w

— Luna (@Lunayian) June 30, 2025

Similar to Orion, Celeste might even let you game—just a little bit. @Lunayian found a short video and logo referencing a minigame called “Meta Hypernova.”

Ultimately, Meta’s main goal is to release a pair of AR smartglasses that let you open several apps at once. In my Orion demo, I could use multiple apps, including Instagram, a web browser, and a video call, and see them all floating transparently in front of my eyeballs. The secondary goal is to get the price down to something that people will pony up for. According to Bloomberg, Meta is targeting around $1,000 for its first AR glasses. That’s not throwaway money, but it’s also not $3,500 for an Apple Vision Pro.

There’s also still a lot we don’t know. Orion required a rather large wireless compute puck to handle much of its graphics processing. Will Ceres need a separate puck or rely on a phone for processing? Will people want to use a wristband that will need to be charged on its own?

The veracity of these leaks can’t be confirmed, but someone would have had to go through a lot of trouble just to fake them. It’s likely we’ll find out more at Meta’s annual Connect developer conference happening September 17 through 18. Mark Zuckerberg is hellbent on beating everyone to AR glasses. And he kind of has to—the competition is appearing larger and larger in his rearview mirror. It’s been long-rumored that Tim Cook is pushing for a pair of AR glasses, though the company settled with Vision Pro first because the technology to shrink AR into a pair of eyewear isn’t there yet. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel announced at AWE last month that the company’s first AR glasses are coming next year. Without showing any images or videos, he described them as “lightweight” and “immersive,” which we can only take to mean they won’t look like the goofy, oversized (but standalone) developer versions of Specs (see below) that Snap has been letting devs and creators fiddle with. And, of course, Google is going to come guns blazing with Android XR, which will likely launch with hardware from a bunch of brands, just like other Android phones and tablet devices.

Finally tried Snap Spectacles 5. #ama

Have some thoughts on how it compares to Meta’s Orion AR glasses pic.twitter.com/IQlyRHPT6g

— Ray Wong (@raywongy) November 18, 2024

Time is of the essence for Meta and Zuck if they really want to own our faces as the next computing battleground. Meta fumbled big time with the whole metaverse that never materialized in VR, but now it’s pivoted everything—pouring tens of billions of dollars a year—into AR and AI. Zuck and company can shove Meta AI into every app it owns, but at the end of the day, they’re still apps experienced mostly through phone screens. Ceres could be the first device to change that and chip away at the phone’s dominance.