Meta Glasses, what do people think

Check out these podcasts by AppleVis, these were done by a blind user during real world situations. Hope they are useful for you.

https://www.applevis.com/podcasts/review-ray-ban-meta-smart-glasses
https://www.applevis.com/podcasts/exploring-latest-feature-additions-ray-ban-meta-smart-glasses

Hey! I've howned the Rayban meta second gen for ten days now and am really happy with it! It is still far from perfect and I'm using it more as an entertainment device for now, because I can listen to music all the time and use it as an assistant to listen and reply to Whatsapp messages, listen to Google maps instructions while the phone is in my pocket while I'm walking on the street with someone sighted, the most important thing is that it doesn't block your hears so that you can understand your surroundings and interact with the people around you while still having a great distraction at the same time.
I haven't tested live AI because it's not available in Brazil yet, but the new features are coming fast and I'm sure that next year we will start to see the integration with many more Apps, since Meta already announced that the sdk is available for developers so that they have access to all the sensors, mic and camera. Imagine having a full integration with the Seeing AI App for example. That would be a dream come true!
Also I'm even using the glasses to record a few videos and when I show them to sighted friends they say that it's perfect, so much better compared to using the iPhone to record, since the glass is already in your head, so you just have to look to where you want"in order to focus.
You can also call someone on Whatsapp while the phone is in your pocket and enable the camera so that the sighted person can look at where you want and can help you find something.
The full experience make these glasses much more future proof compared to all other options, especially because I use Whatsapp all the time, and as far as I understand, no other Glass has the possibility of replying to messages without touching the phone.
Lastly, Meta AI is replying to my requests really quick, takes 2 to 3 seconds to receive the description when I ask it to look and describe.

I Have the first gen Meta Ray-bans. I like them a lot, but they aren't perfect.

They have lots of cool non-blind features like taking photos and videos, listening to various music services, live translation (although I've not had much luck with that) and so on.

I've actually got a lot more from taking photos and recording little videos than I expected. It's not something I did much when I could see, but now it's right on my face anyway and just a button tap or voice command away, I've found myself doing it from time to time. The sound in the videos is really good - I was listening back to them using my Apple TV and surround system and was pretty impressed.

You can send photos to someone with just a voice command. E.g. you can say "hey meta, send photo to xx using WhatsApp" and it will take a photo and do that. Or you can say "Hey Meta call xx on WhatsApp" to start a call, then double tap the camera button and your caller can see what you see. That is pretty awesome.

As they are bluetooth speakers, you can hear VoiceOver coming out of them when you use your phone. Bear in mind if people are near you they may be able to hear as the sound is quite leaky but it's fine for most things.

You can start a Be My Eyes call just by asking Meta. I've not done this but it's great it is there.

Then there is the AI. Like all AIs, it is not to be trusted with your life. It is pretty good for low stakes things like reading labels, as long as the consequences of a mistake aren't going to be fatal. Or it can describe scenes quite nicely. I used them to find my wife's secret biscuit stash so I would say it was worth it just for that.

I don't do this, but you could use it to read your post and many people seem to enjoy that. Probably not a good idea to get it to read bank statements or hospital letters, though. With all AI stuff, who knows what happens to our data.

The Ai is also pretty nice if you go out somewhere and want to ask what buildings are or to give you extra facts. Honestly it is really nice to feel like the one with knowledge as opposed to having no clue where we are or what is around without being told.

There are a few other features like being able to get the time, set timers, ask where you are, what the weather is or just the normal random facts you might ask a smart speaker.

The battery life on my gen 1s is fine. If I am out for the day I will take the case with me and I can charge it up over coffee or lunch. The gen 2s are supposedly much better so will likely last you the day depending on what you do.

My main issue with them may be more to do with my mobile provider than anything, but I find they lose connectivity a lot. It is incredibly disappointing when you go somewhere only to have them refuse to respond to anything at all.

Also bear in mind you get all the features in the US, but if you are elsewhere then please check that what you want is available. I live in the UK and get loads of features but there are also some things missing like the live chat feature.

There is no offline functionality like OCR. There has been the suggestion that apps like Seeing AI may be able to gain access to the camera sometime next year, which may provide that (albeit not hands free to start with). But never buy something like this just on the promise of what may or may not come in the future.

I've not used other glasses. I was tempted by the Ally glasses until I used the app and I thought the experience was awful. Not only was the AI just wrong about most things it delivered its responses in a slightly petulant, sarcastic fashion that I found really grating. Some people like it, but it needs to at least get its facts right. So on day one I am unconvinced they would be better. Who knows about the future though.

There's also Echo Vision which sound interesting but are US only so no use to me right now.

I really enjoyed reading your thoughts and comments about the glasses. Another thing to consider when comparing the Meta glasses to the other options like the Solos, Envision, Rokid and many more is the montly subscription as well as the slow response times. I was also curious to test the Ally App. I live in Brazil. there's a delay of sometimes more than 5 seconds prior to getting a response. this is definitelly unacceptable for me. Plus to use the Ally as far as I understand you still need to have the App open even if the phone is locked in your pocket there are more steps involved. You can't just remove the glasses from the case, take a photo and send it on Whatsapp. With the sdk open for the developers the Meta Glass is still miles ahead of the other options in my opinion.

The Meta AI is generally very problematic. You’ll get some basic things done. For the most part I would say it’s a waste of time. Give it another couple of years. Some really good stuff will be coming out at that point. For now, it’s just cash grabs.

You do have to have the Meta AI app open all the time with the glasses. I think some stuff like taking photos and videos probably works without it but most things need it.. I just leave it open all the time in the background.

The Ally app can be used without a subscription so I suspect the glasses can be too. But the functionality does get limited. For starters you can't personalise the AI. Maybe that's why they make the defaults so annoying, so that you are forced to subscribe.

I don't agree that this is a waste of time. It all depends on what you are wanting them for. You need to temper your expectations a little.

If you are expecting to throw away the white cane and have the glasses directing you over busy roads, then maybe you aren't going to last very long. If you want to sit there and have it read a whole book to you then, also, maybe that's a bit optimistic. If you are wanting it to help you with your medication then definitely don't be doing that.

But it does allow me to do a few things by myself without having to hold out the phone, and it does sometimes add a little colour to my day. So I appreciate it more for the little things than the life changing things.

But they do more than just the AI things anyway, so if those things also appeal then they are very much worth the time. I remember once I was trying to figure out where the post man had put a parcel. I ended up calling mrs grieves on whatsapp and she noticed that he had thrown it in a bush. I was able to use both hands to find it. Yes I could have used my phone's camera but having two hands was pretty helpful. I would never have found it on my own. And now I could use Be My Eyes to do the same thing.

It will be interesting to see what happens next year when we get the fruits of the SDK. We should be able to use the camera for Seeing AI and a load of other things. Definitely don't buy the glasses for that reason as we don't know exactly if/when this will happen. But it could be very helpful.

While I have not spent too much time on this, we can theoretically use the app on our smart phones to mimic a lot of what the glasses can do with the Meta AI app.

For what it's worth to you, I am sorry that you have had such a crap experience with the Meta smart glasses. They really can be a wonderful and quite liberating device. The next generation are reportedly even better, with longer battery, waterproof features, wraparound frame option, better speakers, and a more powerful camera.

I bought the Meta glasses at the end of March of this year. Two friends who I really trust when it comes to tech recommendations gave ringing endorsements of the glasses. I actually went on a cruise with 1 of those friends and she showed me her glasses. In that brief demo, I thought they'd be great, so actually ordered them the day I got home from the cruise.

I really, really wanted to like the glasses, but I had far too many negative experiences. I consider myself to be someone who is good at communicating with AI, but somehow, I never really hit it off with Meta AI. More often than not, it seemed to have a snippy attitude, and there were multiple situations where it gave me completely inaccurate info.

I freely admit that user error could have been a contributing factor, and I also know that AI tends to have hallucinations, but even with that knowledge in mind, I couldn't help feeling that the Meta glasses were straight up lying to me on several occasions.

Thankfully, I was able to sell the Meta glasses to a co-worker, and she is very happy with them. I told her that I'm glad they like her more than they liked me. Currently waiting for my Ally Solos glasses; supposedly, they were going to ship this week, but that doesn't seem to have happened yet. Hopefully, I'll still receive them by the end of the month, especially since I ordered them during the ultra early bird phaise when they were the same price as the Metas.

Obviously, everyone is going to have different experiences, but just speaking for myself, I could never recommend the Meta glasses to anyone.

I have significant privacy concerns regarding Meta, particularly due to the use of Facebook and other platforms. Additionally, I believe that these glasses are being utilized through a third-party application to access Aira, which constitutes another violation of privacy.I have serious privacy concerns with Meta because of Facebook and other ways that their products are used. I also think that these glasses are being used through a third-party application to use Aira, which is another violation of privacy or other words away for violate for privacy to be violated.

Firstly, there is nothing the glasses can do that the phone cannot - quite the opposite. You are buying them for the form factor and the convenience this brings not because it has features you cannot find elsewhere. Whether or not that is sufficient value for you is a personal question. I hate getting my phone out and fiddling around with it in public, so love just being able to get instant responses whilst leaving it in my pocket.

Regarding privacy, I've said this before but I don't trust any of the big AI players. Google have hardly got a good track record in this regard - like Meta there business is in our data. I don't trust Open AI particularly nor anyone else. So I don't think that any AI is particularly good in this regard. Maybe Meta is the worst offender, but let's not kid ourselves that we should really trust any of them.

Regarding Aira, they do not integrate with the glasses directly because there is no current mechanism to do so. Instead they employ a bit of a hack using WhatsApp to achieve the same thing. PiccyBot does something similar. This isn't dodgy, just a workaround due to technical limitations. If the announced SDK lives up to its billing then hacks like this should no longer be needed but let's wait and see.

I do respect the opinion of those who don't like the glasses. I think Aside from AI, if you feel like the other features make them worthwhile on their own then you won't be disappointed. If you are buying them specifically for the AI then it could go either way.

I would suggest trying them before buying. I believe the version 2 are better for fit but my experience is, and always has been with glasses, that they tend to slide down my long and noble nose. I don't have much of a bridge and, especially on a hot sweaty day, I find myself having to reseat them.

I might use them more if they were more comfortable but, as it is, I don't realy use mine.

There is no privacy. They (governments and corporations) lie. Everything you do is recorded. They watch you, on every single camera, on your devices. They listen to you. They read your text messages and emails. They know every single website you’ve visited. Even if you’ve deleted your history or turned on private mode. They know exactly where you are even if you turn Location services off. You have absolutely no privacy. You gave that away years ago.

If you think that you have any privacy, then there is a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you.

Heard apple is coming up with their own glasses. Probably more expensive than the others.

I am excited about the Apple glasses, but from the sounds of it, they won't be out until 2027. As with any of these things, the question is: do we wait on something we know is going to be accessible out of the box, might not be very well supported by apps in the beginning, and will, as you say, have the Apple tax, or go for the thing that is out now and actually get some use out of it?

I still think there is a way to go for Meta with the SDK before it is going to be something that is useful. I get it's fun, and there are some bits and pieces it can do which some find useful. I've just not found it consistent enough to see it as indispensable. I guess that's what I'm looking for: an app that is perfect for the form factor, highly accurate, and something I can't do on my phone. As yet, none of it is quite there for my use case.

It's not the magic wand that can solve all your blindness problems, at the same time, it's not a totally useless device either. Even if you set aside all the blindness specific use-cases, even then it's worth it on it's own right as a camera, open-ear headphone and a hands-free assistant all combined in an intuitive form-factor.

If the best you can say that it’s not a total useless product, then that’s not exactly high praise. You know, a lot of people bought this thing, hoping that it would be something worthwhile. And they’ve regretted the purchase. So what they do is try to justify it in any way they can. The device itself is fine. The artificial intelligence is what is problematic. It doesn’t describe things well. It gets a lot of things wrong. It isn’t reliable. I knew that within 10 minutes of using one. It also doesn’t work in darker environments like nighttime. The technology itself isn’t quite there yet. It stinks that we have to wait another year or two. But that’s what it is. Believe me, I want these devices to work. They just aren’t ready yet. It’s a marketing ploy. It’s a trick. It does the most basic things. And it doesn’t even do those things well. Give it two years and we will have devices that are worth the money and time.

I don't think people are justifying. I think they are simply saying they enjoy the device. It's great that people have a range of opinions on such things. How these devices fit into our lives is very much dependent on the shape of our lives or, in my case, nose. It frustrates me when someone assume that other's experience and expectations should be exactly the same as their own. There are plenty of things I don't like that other people love, and many things I love that others despise. An attack on other's views basically saying you're right and they're kidding themselves, may come across a little closed minded.

sorry to critique. As I said, I have things I love. Deciding that everyone is the same and blaming variation on self denial, is not one of them. :)

I’ve had my eyes on these no pun intended for a while now. I feel like they would be useful anyway with all the hands-free audio and video options they give you. When you add in the AI to ask what’s around, as someone who’s been transitioning back from guide dog to Kane the past year the more information I can gather about my surroundings the better. So I feel like that’s a nice bonus, even if obviously you can’t rely on it and neither should you. I’m also intrigued to see what developers can do with these over the next months.

Well said.

The thing is - these glasses are neither the answer to all our blindness problems nor a total waste of time. There are certain things they are very good at, and there are some things, provided by AI, that some people love and some people hate. Both sets of people are right.

The thing about AI as it stands today is that you have to accept that it lies. I use Chat GPT at work and it regularly tells me things very confidently that are just not true. However, overall I get a lot of value from it. You just have to weigh one thing up against another. These glasses are the same. I have no doubt that it will also apply to the Ally glasses.

I can't wait until Apple announce their glasses. I am going to find it very hard to resist. But, Google/Samsung have also promised glasses aside from the new headset. Whether that will be Android only or not, who knows. It will be very interesting to find out where we are a year or two from now.

In the meantime, the odd frustration aside, I get good value from my Meta glasses and won't apologise for that. If they were to break I would be very keen to replace them as soon as possible.

Maybe when we all have brain chips and cybernetic guide dogs, will we have the 'end all, be all' for blindness tools. Until then, I am going to continue enjoying my Meta smart glasses. I have to wear sunglasses all the time, due to severe photophobia, so for me wearing sunglasses is not even an issue. When I first got my Meta smart glasses, they were great for listening to music and other media. Overtime, they have updated, and gotten really good at other things as well. I am honestly sad for those of you who have had terrible experiences with Meta smart glasses. Personally, I enjoy using mine daily. There are a lot of little things, things that could be done on the iPhone, that are just a lot quicker with the smart glasses. Such as setting a calendar event, a reminder, a timer, making a note of a phone number that your Meta smart glasses read off of a Printed note on a door, in your mail, handed to you on a flyer, etc.
Being in a shopping environment, hearing some music playing overhead, asking Meta what that is that's playing, and having Meta AI tell me the name of the song/artist/etc. Picking up a garment in a clothing store, and being able to read the price tag and garment size without asking for assistance from a sided person. and a whole laundry list of other small little things like the aforementioned, that make my personal life a touch more enjoyable.
So, do Meta smart glasses do everything I could want or need? No, God no. However, they do plenty, and that is enough. For now.
For the person considering buying a pair, consider getting the sport version, the Oakley vanguards. They have included a water resistance rating to those, which I'm sure we all would find very useful in our daily lives.

Totally agreed. These glasses have been useful enough that I'd go so far as to say that the day I have the finances, I'd even order the new meta display glasses, not for the display as it is useless to me, but because I can see the potential of the ristband, specific to my life, specific to my use-cases. It's a narrow world where people say that because they were disappointed by something, everyone else have to parret them.

Those brain chips are too salty and oily for my tastes, but it does sound like a plus that you could read the label on them in the store with the glasses.

Again, you guys are missing the point. If you like something, by all means go use it. By 17 of them. I could care less. But it is rudimentary at best. This is all a trick. These things aren’t really doing much. They’re trying to build out the market. That doesn’t mean it actually works.

I know what works for me. And it’s not a pair of heavy uncomfortable glasses that barely work 30% of the time. I don’t like people hearing anything that I’m doing. That’s why I prefer AirPods over the smart glasses speakers. I don’t wanna have to reset the darn device every 10 minutes when it locks into some illusion loop. It doesn’t work at night time because it won’t take enough light to see anything in front of it. Been refuses to describe people in any meaningful way because he thinks it’s gonna be offensive.

It’s just the glydance all over again with you guys. It’s not ready yet. It doesn’t work in a meaningful way. And it needs time to mature. You want to use it as it is, fine. But it’s not ready yet.

@OldBear,
Absolutely, you can do much with the Metas in a shopping situation. Especially 'big box' stores such as Walnart, and the like. I think part of the problem with devices such as these is that they tend to have the drawback of 'first impressions'. That is to say, that if the first time you try them and the task you set forth is a success, then you will like them, and vice versa. 🤷

These glasses do quite a bit for me. Some of the things I can think of off the top of my head.
1. I use them as headphones when walking outside. I highly doubt someone can get close enough to me while I'm walking, but if they do I don't care if they hear my podcast, and soundscape directions. I'm not doing banking.
2. They read the computer screen to me pretty well when I'm figuring out how to select a boot device to install different operating systems such as Linux.
3. Being able to set hands free timers while cooking on a griddle and wearing heat resistant gloves that stop me from using my phone is helpful.
4. They are quite good at telling me what food items are in the pantry. I live with others so I can't expect everyone to keep things organized in such a way that nothing ever changes.
Don't state it doesn't work in a meaningful way. It may not be meaningful to you but based on my examples it sure works in a meaningful way for me.

Those are the most basic functions. As I said, they are completely rudimentary. And you don’t need my approval to enjoy them. By all means. Use them, enjoy them. I hope you get all you like out of them.

If people like the Meta glasses, that's great! More power to them. No judgment here; the original post was someone asking for thoughts on whether or not to get the Meta glasses, so those of us who have had negative experiences feel compelled to warn that this is a possibility, or that new users need to at least manage their expectations. I will hopefully be receiving my Ally Solos glasses tomorrow. The only thing I'm hoping at this point is that they work better for me than the metas did, so that's a pretty low bar if I'm being honest. The only reason I decided to jump on the glasses bandwagon at all is because reading stuff and identifying objects hands-free without having to figure out how to position my phone's camera correctly really appeals to me.

Hopefully going to be getting some around Christmas, I was waiting for the new generation to come out. Out of interest, has anybody tried the ones from Meacode? When researching glasses to buy because obviously there is a huge market for them now, they came up top of the list but I’ve not heard anything about them. I can definitely see a lot of use cases for them though, so I really appreciate everyone putting theirs down. I was going to buy some glasses anyway to walk around in as my light perception is gone, so I might as well get ones that will hopefully help me in every day life.. :)

I really really want these, but couldn't get the required perscription to get my insurance to pay for them. Any of you who have tried and don't like them, depending on size and color, if ya wanna sell, I'd be quite happy to take them off your hands, and you can recover some of what you spent on them. Having said that, not sure that conversation should take place here, so feel free to reach out to me privately.

Basic functions maybe, but the kind of basic functions which were not so intuitively accessible before these were around. And the point we are missing here is that these were never advertised as an assistive technology device or anything. If someone expected a pair of meta glasses to work like an assistant, a guide dog, and a caretaker all combined into one and occasionally act as a rocket, helping them launch themselves into space for the odd joyride, all in the first itteration and then got disappointed, it is their problem, not an issue with the glasses. When people say stuff like "I know what works for me", what they forget is the fact that they're not the only intellegent member of the species left around to figure out things and that others who have stated their views in this thread or elsewhere have relatively similar amounts of intellegence and an equal amount of thought autonomy, and hence have the right to state the same thing IE "I know what works for me and I have a right to state it in an open forum". The critical thing here's that while people are free to state their negative experiences (in fact, I'd be absolutely unhappy with the community if they didn't do that) noone has the right to question or invalidate the subjective experiences of others. a civilized discussion should be based on facts not invalidation. When we say stuff like "It's not ready", we should know that people have been saying that here all over. nobody's hiding that. The wearable industry is just getting started; it's not yet there; it takes quite a lot of maturing. That's all true. But it's also true that compared to what we've had 2 years ago, what we have today is huge progress; yes, maybe it's rudimentary, but if you ask me, it's a possitive kind of rudimentary. If people expect a fully mature piece of technology to be handed to them out of the blue, the issue is with their expectations, not with the industry itself.
@Jared, like I said before, some people don't understand that something may not mean much to them, yet it may give others a decent experience. And it's a sad world where such people think that only their opinion matters. The OP was asking people for their honest experience and people chose to shair it. For the most part, it's been constructively critical. I can shair, of the top of my head, another 10 use-cases from matching my sox to reading signs in an airport, but people will keep asking stuff like what if electricity failed and there's very little light? Well folks, what we're discussing here is a camera device that requires active internet. One should've always known that such devices don't work properly when there's no internet, little light, 0 charge etc. Sorry nobody told you those things.

I say, thousand dollars got you some impressive capabilities back then. Now 300 dollars are getting you something very similar, that too readily available in stores across countries, that too decent looking. Envisions were okay, but Meta is a sure upgrade over them.
I just hope Google launches a similar audio only glasses soon with their Android XR, else Meta is going to crush them in this market. The Seeing AI integration in Meta Raybands, whenever it comes out, if it is as good as it sounds, I'll hit that buy now button ASAP. I like to buy products for their current features, not for future promises.
The Galaxy XR is just too costly at this point and I don't need display in front of my eyes.

People want opinions. and then when they’re given those opinions, they get extraordinarily defensive. So, they’re not looking for opinions. They’re looking for someone to stroke their ego and they essentially tell them that they made the right decision by purchasing something that they themselves aren’t too happy with.

This isn’t a matter of intelligence. It’s about impulsivity and being a reactionary. Penny blind people unfortunately jump to whatever conclusions; and they usually aren’t objective. It’s either on an extreme positive, or it’s on an extreme negative.

Like I said, this is just like the Glydance all over again. I suggested the people to be mindful that it probably wasn’t going to show up in 2025. That probably wouldn’t even show up in 2026. And everybody rammed their defensiveness down my throat. It is happening here. And I’ve said that I want people to enjoy the device. I don’t need to sign off on people’s enjoyment of something. And I don’t need to support their choice. An opinion was asked for. An opinion was given. Not everyone is going to like something just because. When there’s praise to be given, I openly give it. When somebody needs support, that’s given to.

I don’t like that many blind people are so hungry for something to improve their lives, that they actually emotionally blind themselves, just to justify something that barely works.

Hi all, Hope you all are doing well. I'm loving my meta glasses! I have been using them since I got the first generation for my birthday last year and they have been such a game changer. You can ask what's around you in your environment, as well as take excellent photos and record stunning videos with amazing stereo audio quality. In fact, this past month during our delight monthly Bible study group at my church I was able to take a photo using the glasses of people dancing and holding pom-pom sticks and after transferring them to my phone, voiceovers image recognition was able to describe to me what was in the photo without any glitches or errors. One feature I really do love is The natural conversation mode which at this time is only available to early access users. It will soon be rolled out to all users at some point. Overall, I'm loving my Meta glasses.

The actual term is, I couldn't care less. If you could care less, it means you still care somewhat; however, if you are unable to care less IE, couldn't care less, it is the most unimportant thing possible to you...

Though, from your horror at others enjoying something you can't enjoy, maybe you do care... Maybe you care a lot...

Your friendly neighbourhood pedant...

Ollie.

It does make me think, from what basis do we judge these devices? From zero, they are miracles. Independently we would not have access to any of this, a sighted guide on our head, AI to identify objects, writing. A headset that can pipe information to us without obscuring our hearing.

Take these devices away and we see what they can do. I think my view, and I do understand those who don't think the devices are quite there yet, is that they add tools to our toolkit. They can't do everything, they don't claim to though. They can't do what they say they can do 100 % of the time, but that is improving.

they are going to be a disappointment if the expectation is they will solve all the problems we've got due to sight loss. But... And this is the point, if we look at it as an addition to what we already have, an extension of skills and abilities which we learn to integrate into our lives... It's all pretty marvellous.

Maybe something is less than perfect, but something is better than nothing.

Whether its smart phones or smart glasses, my personal independence has grown significantly since the acquisition of my smart devices. Are they faulty? Yes, of course. Would I prefer to go without them? Absolutely not. And while I am confident that more sophisticated tech will make itself known to the world in due time, I am content enough to have what I have to work with. For now.
I will say one thing, while these glasses and this tech is interesting, nothing beats the quality of life I had with my former Seeing Eye Dog.
Now if the powers that be would just make me a cybernetic guide dog already ... 😈

missing the point again. Like I said. Either extreme negativity or extreme positivity.

No one is debating what these devices can do. The question is if it is worth buying in their current state. My answer is no. They do very basic things. Again, go enjoy whatever you want. I believe that these devices are not useful in the way they will be in 2 years. Not everyone can just buy a new device every couple of years. Most people need to base their decision on what is affordable and truly usable based on that affordability. Again, I believe it is worth waiting.

The problem is, you're not justifying that statement at all. Take the poster who said it was meaningful, because they could ID food in their pantry.

However basic that is, it apparently works for them enough that they can use it to help themselves. So they don't care that you think it's basic, and that in two years, OMG the future's so bright, you gotta wear shades! (That's for my fellow olds. It's not for people like Ash).

So I mean, people are telling you, "hey here's how this is literally meaningful to me because it's helping me right now", and your response is basically, "haha whatevs loser, just you wait two years"!

It's like I'm saying, hey guys I love the Supertorch 5000 because I can use it to cut metal and I do that a lot for my job! And you're going, "OMG cutting metal is so basic, just you wait till the AI torch 12376 comes out, it will do so much more! Stop jumping on the new hotness just to try and make yourself happy"!

You're not telling me what you think it will do, and why that justifies waiting. You're not explaining why some dude being able to identify foods, in a way that is useful to him, is all some sort of lie he's telling himself to make himself happy. You're just being real real judgy about all of it, and no, saying "all y'all go enjoy whatever you enjoy I guess" doesn't mean you're not judging people here.

It's one thing if you say, "for me, this stuff is too basic, I wouldn't buy it". But you're not. Now you're telling people they're buying stuff they shouldn't, because "it's not ready", and they're doing it just to try and make themselves happy.

Do you know they're unhappy? I'm going to guess you do not in fact know that. So why are you saying things like that? You can give your opinion that they're basic without doing *any* of that. You can say they're basic and you wouldn't buy them, and not justify that in any way whatsoever, and groovy, good for you.

But again, you're not, even though you think you are. You're proclaiming what others should do, and then judging people who have done something different from you, they bought the glasses and you didn't. Now you're imputing motives to them, they did it to *try* and make themselves happy. On top of this, you have no idea what the glasses will or will not be able to do in two years. Neither does anybody else.

Well, in 2 years, we will probably have tech that's amazing by todays standards. But will it satisfy all of us? Trust me, no! Why? because human desire is limitless. At that point someone will definitely insert a rejointer suggesting that if we wait another 2 years, we will have yet more perfect tech. And this will keep happening. Therefore, instead of forcing our beliefs down others throats, if we can state our views and trust others to make their own decisions based on their requirements, finances, and circumstances, and desist ourselves from just out and out judging others without understanding the thought process behind their choices, the world can be a more happy place, both for us and for others.

My answer is yes, depending on various aspects like finances, requirements etc which will be different for different people. A lot of people here in India ask me if they can go for Meta glasses for reading native languages and I will say no, obviously; and if the requirement in general is reading; studying etc, I of course will not suggest them. But if it is indipendent living (again based on finances) I will say yes to that question.
@ Ash since you addressed me directly: Why are you getting so defensive when people give that "yes" answer? Do you think they do not have the intellegence or the freedom to make that choice? If you think the glasses have been useless or that they're basic, you can state that. But what do you think gives you the right to decide others happiness/satisfaction or the lack thereof?
also: "People want opinions. and then when they’re given those opinions, they get extraordinarily defensive. So, they’re not looking for opinions. They’re looking for someone to stroke their ego". I think this is exactly the trap that you're falling into here. When you felt that your opinion was being challenged (though objectively I haven't seen that being done here) you started becoming defensive, and for that, you started judging people on the basis of a criteria (their happiness) about which, you actually have 0 idea. You can say that the glasses are basic which is perfectly understandable; but based on what objective criteria do you say that a person who is making effective and creative use of that basic functionality to derive tangential and emotional satisfaction of the glasses is lying to themselves? Why do you insist that just because the glasses didn't give you the satisfaction that you expected, the same must be true for everyone else and if it is not, all of them are lying to themselves and others?

I am totally with Gokul here.

For me, I'm not getting the glasses for a couple of reasons. One big one is, I don't really need them. I don't need to find food enough, as an example, to justify buying them, it's just me and my wife and we're pretty good about getting the stuff I need access to in places I know. Well, *she* is anyway.

The other thing is, and this makes sense since Meta makes them, it seems like a lot of the other functionality people talk about like making hands-free calls and sharing videos and pictures goes through WhatsApp. I don't use that at all, never have. So if they're really tied to that, there's a lot of stuff I just wouldn't use.

On the other hand, I have tried finding food and reading labels and stuff with apps like Seeing AI, just to see what it's like. It works, but I find I often have to move the phone around a *lot* to get a usable picture. So if I had to do a lot of that, and I could instead just hold something up near/in front of my face and the glasses would take that picture? That would actually save me a lot of time, however *basic* that feature happens to be.

Again, I don't do this enough, I think I used Seeing AI and the phone *once* to actually find something and check and make sure it was the right thing. But again, it did work. So if I were living by myself, and I could find the right foods or whatever and get labels and directions and stuff read, and the glasses would make that process easier? I can honestly see just that being worth it, apart from anything else.

And IMO the way they'd likely make things easier is, as somebody pointed out with videos, you just have to face the thing. And your head is in a much more fixed position than a phone at the end of your arm with a fairly small camera you have to line up. I end up having to explicitly take pictures if I use an AI app on the phone, because none of the automatic detection stuff triggers, probably because I'm not getting the camera in the right position.

Maybe glasses would help with that, maybe they wouldn't. But if I were thinking about buying them, these are the *basic* considerations I'd be looking at. I wouldn't be thinking they'll solve all of my blindness problems or that the amazing awesomeness that is AI will make me super happy or whatever.

I'd be looking at very practical things like this. I wouldn't be all "yeah but how 'natural' is its conversational ability"? Don't care, what can it actually *do* for me that's useful? I don't need my Amazon devices to have a natural conversation with me. I need them to hear, get it right, and obey when I tell them to make the heating system generate more heat because I'm cold. Is that *basic*? Sure. But now I have control over heating and cooling, and I didn't before. That sounds like a good thing to me.

It does take practice to look at things with the phone, as in aiming it well, or even remembering that you can look with the phone after a lifetime of having to ask someone. It also takes practice to be quick about unlocking your phone, switching to the AI describing or reading app, finding the function you want, sometimes finding the picture taking button among a bunch of other things on the screen, backing out of the wrong function because VO jumped right before you double tapped the screen, and a bunch of other small things that slow the whole process down. However, half an AI is better than no AI when it comes to figuring out what the can of whatever is, or finding out what the letter is... or isn't.
I don't have the glasses, so can't comment on their tediousness.

For what it's worth to you, WhatsApp is not needed to make phone calls or text messages hands-free. I do this by having my phone connected to the Meta AI via Bluetooth. This is a setting within the Meta AI application. I don't even use WhatsApp. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Ah thanks! That's good to know. Honestly I've kicked around the idea of buying a pair. But I just don't think I'd do enough with them to justify it. But it's nice to know I can do a bunch of stuff without other apps, if I do ever decide to buy a pair.

Oh here's another reason, the form factor. Oliver's issues with glasses notwithstanding, glasses usually stay on my face pretty well. So if I was out walking around or whatever, I could just have them on my face and not need to worry about it, e.g. I don't wear my Airpods Pro 2nd Gen. out because even with memory foam tips that help, they still occasionally fall right out of my ears.

I totally get if that's not enough to get somebody to buy them, I'm not after all. And I do think there's quite a bit of hype, but then, there's a chunk of the blind community that hypes AI to the skies, to the point where some of them tell me I just don't know what I'm talking about when I question the usefulness of AI right now because, just you wait five or ten years, you won't even know what computing will be like, you'll be sorry you doubted!

Nope, not me sunshine. I always say, that's great that you think it's gonna do this that and the other, it's not doing it now. Wake me up when it gets here, then I'll pay attention. As others have said, I need to base my usage and Esp. buying decisions on right now, not maybe X years in the future.

To that extent I absolutely understand Ash's reluctance to buy glasses, Meta or otherwise. I've personally never touched an AI, I just don't have anything for them to do and all the stuff people go on about like "OMG it wrote this cool story for me!" simply doesn't impress me. I'm with Zaphod, I get weirder things than that free with my breakfast cereal. That having been said, yeah, AI being able to ID food or stuff in your house and read labels and directions and stuff is huge, and obviously the better it gets at all of that, the more it's going to help us out. That's way more interesting than it writing an email for you or posting to a website or something.

Will we blind folk lose the art of shaking the can or box to try to figure out what's in it due to the excessive use of AI?
If you don't need it, you don't need it. The description of pictures by AI in the same phone that's taking them has, right now, made it possible to start doing work I would have been doing over the last several decades, just in a much slower and frustrating way. It's exciting.
However, reading print, including the mail, was something I did with one sort of scanner or another, going back to the 80s. Didn't do it walking back from the mailbox though... Never did it in a store while browsing products...

Went out shopping today and found out that a glasses shop were selling them, so I went in and tried a couple. I can definitely see these being incredibly useful in my day-to-day life, so will definitely be buying a pair as soon as possible. It helped that the staff were very accommodating too.

Does anyone have the gen2 that have also used the gen1? If so, have you noticed any improvements? I have the gen1 glasses, and am wondering if the gen2 would be a worthwhile upgrade.