Meta’s Rumored Smartwatch May Actually Be a Huge Win for Ray-Ban Glasses

Meta has been on a bit of a tear lately, snapping up AI researchers from Apple and OpenAI on an express train towards… something? What that something is, only time and a watchful eye will reveal, but apparently, a part of that future vision is a smartwatch. According to a report from DigiTimes, Meta is working on reviving its plans to make a smartwatch with a camera on it, and that watch could be revealed later this year.

This isn’t the first time Meta has been rumored to enter this space. Several years ago, it was reportedly interested in making a Facebook smartwatch with two cameras capable of video chatting and more. Obviously, those plans never materialized, but the timing this go-around may make a lot more sense, and that has a lot more to do with smart glasses than it does smartwatches.

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve probably noticed that Meta is pretty bullish on carving out a piece of the future and current smart glasses market, and those plans currently revolve around Meta Ray-Bans—the branded eyewear smart glasses that can play audio, take voice commands and pictures, and use the on-device camera for vision-based AI. While those have proven a surprisingly popular gadget, there’s still one glaring shortcoming, and that’s the fact that they don’t have the one thing that most people would expect in a pair of true smart smart glasses—a screen.

The thing about screens is that they’re more complicated than you might think. They eat up battery, they need the right display for sharpness and legibility, and they also make smart glasses more expensive. So, what’s a company hell-bent on becoming the king of smart glasses (present and future) in the U.S. to do? Well, one way to address all those problems while still giving people what they want would be—you guessed it—a smartwatch.

A smartwatch wouldn’t just be another conduit for Meta’s AI push, it would be an ideal companion device for smart glasses for several reasons. One is that it has a screen, so instead of trying to shove one into its smart glasses, potentially increasing the size and price drastically, Meta could offload all of that screen information onto your wrist. Why not just do that with a phone, you ask? Well, it’s not that simple. Another thing a Meta-made smartwatch could do is tighten the integration between its smart glasses and a crucial secondary device.

Right now, Meta’s smart glasses require a companion app (now rebranded as the Meta AI app, unfortunately), which is where lots of important stuff happens. Every time you take a picture, it goes to the Meta AI app first and needs to be imported to your phone from there. Want to adjust the settings on your glasses? Going to need the Meta AI app for that. Firmware updates? Meta AI app. Basically, anything that you need a screen for needs to go through the Meta AI app, which makes the experience of using the glasses feel a little tacked on. As far as phones are concerned, Meta’s smart glasses are a foreign object.

Imagine, though, being able to take a picture on your glasses and then having it show up immediately on your smartwatch? Or being able to tightly integrate hardware and software for things like video calling. You could use the smartwatch’s camera to show yourself while using the glasses for audio. Not to mention, a smartwatch would also act as an ideal interface for controlling your glasses, giving them a screen-based UI that doesn’t require pulling open a companion app or some high-tech hand or eye tracking, similar to Orion’s wristband. The possibilities are plenty when it comes to a smartwatch and glasses duo, and I’d be shocked if Meta didn’t see that same potential. And the best part about smartwatches is that they can be made and sold fairly cheaply, so if you wanted to augment your glasses experience with one, you wouldn’t need to spend a ton of money to do so.

Frankly, I think one of the biggest challenges here will be making a smartwatch that works and also one that people want to wear on their body, and on that front, I’m less confident in Meta’s ability, though it could theoretically pull a page from its glasses playbook and partner with a watch brand for some style advice. Either way, if you’re a fan of smart glasses, you should be equally excited for a Meta-made smartwatch that would otherwise just be another boring budget wearable.