Brilliant Labs Unveils Halo: AI-Powered Smart Glasses with Advanced Memory and Customization Features

The $299 Halo smart glasses will remember the names of people you meet

Startup Brilliant Labs has announced a successor to its $349 open-source Frame smart glasses, which debuted early last year with features like AI-powered translations and the ability to identify what you were looking at. Its new $299 Halo smart glasses are priced closer to Meta's entry-level Ray-Ban models and come with upgraded AI capabilities, including more natural conversations with its Noa multimodal AI agent that can "understand what it hears and sees within its environment and responds with contextually relevant information in real-time." They're available for preorder now (in limited quantity) through Brilliant Labs' website in a style similar to Ray-Ban Wayfarers but only in a matte black finish. Shipping is expected in late November 2025. For those needing prescription lenses for the Halo, the startup has partnered with SmartBuyGlasses. Instead of simply relying on audio cues like Meta's wearables, the Halo glasses use a 0.2-inch color microOLED display that "projects a retro arcade-style UI" into your peripheral vision. There's sound, too, but it's delivered through bone-conduction speakers on the Halo's arms for added privacy. Battery life is rated at up to 14 hours, thanks in part to a low power camera and an AI chip featuring a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU), and while slightly heavier than last year's Frame glasses, the Halo are still relatively lightweight at just over 40 grams. Brilliant Labs says that conversations with its Noa AI agent will now "feel natural and intuitive as if speaking with a real person," thanks to it delivering contextually relevant information based on your environment. Noa also has more control over the Halo glasses themselves, letting you mute the microphone or put them to sleep using expanded voice commands. For those who find both their memory and eyesight starting to slip, Halo will utilize Brilliant Labs' new "patent-pending agentic memory system" called Narrative that uses data collected from its camera, mics, and interactions to create a "private and personalized knowledge base" for you. The startup says Narrative will allow its smart glasses to recall the name of someone you've met when talking to them again, and even access details from past conversations. There's also an experimental new coding feature called Vibe Mode that will let you "create custom applications using simple natural language voice commands." Noa will generate an app based on your specific needs, such as an alternate mapping utility that's customized for how you prefer to navigate a city, the startup suggests. Instead of having to dig through an app store and try several options until you find an app that best suits your needs, you can create one on demand that immediately features the specific functionality you need.

These ultra-thin AI glasses make the Meta Ray-Bans look outdated (with 3X the battery)

Halo smart glasses might be the first true AI wearable.The agent can remember names, and even vibe code.They are available for $299 and will ship later in 2025. Smart glasses are an ideal form factor for AI assistance. They give AI access to everything you hear and see from your POV, making the handoff between you and the bot as effortless as possible. Now, the latest AI glasses from Brilliant Labs seem ready to take AI-enabled assistance to the next level. The Halo glasses, launched Thursday, weigh just over 40 grams, about the same weight and look as traditional eyeglasses. Yet, they also pack in other features: a full-color display, made possible by a tiny optical module built into the frame; an optical sensor used for multimodal tasks; bone conduction speakers; a microphone array; and 14 hours of battery life for daily intelligence. Also: Should you buy XR glasses for work and travel? This discounted pair made me a believer While these specs are impressive on their own, they all work together to support their core purpose -- being a true AI wearable that can see and listen to what you do all day and assist you with anything you need at a later date. With the Halo AI glasses, the company says users can have near real-time conversations with Noa, the device's AI agent that was created to feel as intuitive and natural as speaking to a real person. According to Brilliant Labs, part of the fluidity of the experience can be attributed to the fact that Noa can see and hear what you see using the mic array and optical sensor. Also: I took a walk with Meta's new Oakley smart glasses - they beat my Ray-Bans in every way This contextual data isn't only used for immediate responses. Rather, through Brilliant Labs' long-term agentic memory feature called Narrative, Noa can also create a personalized knowledge base of the user that analyzes life context for future questions. "There's a ton going on when it [the agent] receives unstructured audio and video and other related contextual bits of data that it's working autonomously in the background to connect those data pieces together," said Bobak Tavangar, CEO at Brilliant Labs. Also: Xreal wants you to dump your Meta Ray-Bans with this trade-in deal - here's how it works Beyond regular AI assistance, Noa can perform a series of tasks on your glasses, such as muting your microphone and camera. The AI can also help users vibe code with a new experimental feature called Vibe Mode. Using this feature, users can create new apps using natural language voice commands, which, according to the company, takes seconds. Users can then see and run the application on the display, share it with others, and remix existing generated apps. The display in the glasses is enabled by a small optical module that resembles a bead and sits on the frame. Despite its small size, the module projects full-color images in a retro arcade-style display. Other AI smart glasses, such as Halliday's devices, have taken a similar approach. Although this form of projection sounds complicated, as someone who has demoed these types of devices before, it is quite intuitive. There are practical reasons to use the optical module instead of the in-lens display, such as the ease of changing prescription lenses without worrying about the display. At purchase, the glasses will come with non-prescription lenses and a reflective coating. However, there will be options for prescription through a partnership with SmartBuyGlasses. The biggest advantage of the module is that it's powered at a lower brightness, saving battery, according to the company. The technology also complements the AI-wearable mission. "We're not trying to do like 150° field-of-view VR immersive stuff," said Tavangar. "Most of it is, you know, imagery, emoji, and little visual indicators to complement your dialogue with AI." Also: I replaced my Ray-Ban Meta with these Amazon smart glasses, and was impressed The glasses also forego bulky cameras found on other smart glasses for taking high-quality photos and videos. Instead, the device uses an optical sensor that captures just enough data to allow the AI to see what you see, but not to capture social content. This change was intentional, according to Tavangar, who shared that the primary intent of the glasses is not image and video capture, which the Meta Ray-Bans excel at, but rather a true AI wearable experience. Brilliant Labs says that Halo glasses are the world's only fully open-source AI glasses. Why does this status matter? The open-source hardware and software allow developers to build solutions for the device that expand the capabilities for all. This capability should be a win-win for developers and users. Also: We tested the best AR and MR glasses: Here's how the Meta Ray-Bans stack up "This next generation of personal computing is one that we believe has to be built by all of us, not just a few people off in some design studio," said Tavangar. Security is naturally a top concern for a wearable that listens to you all day, every day. Brilliant Labs addresses this concern in the release, assuring users that their data is protected. All of the rich media collected by Halo for Noa to function, including visuals and audio, is converted into an "irreversible mathematical representation". "For AI to truly be useful to someone, you need to be able to trust it, to be able to trust it, you need to be able to have it in your life all day, to have it in your life all day, you need the device to be lightweight, you need people to trust that the interactions you have with AI or the data that's being captured," said Tavangar. Tavangar added that he wouldn't want his kids wearing glasses that capture their lives and are susceptible to a data breach, so ensuring privacy and encryption was crucial. He also shared that third parties do not have access to user data. The Halo glasses will retail for $299 in Matte Black on the Brilliant Labs website. Shipping will start late November 2025 and follow the same release model as the company's Frame smart glasses. Only a limited number of units will be available for purchase.

Brilliant Labs launches its second-generation smart glasses

It's the vehicle for an AI assistant that talks like a 'real person.' Brilliant Labs is the startup behind Frame, the open-source smart glasses designed for hackers and other creative types. Today, the company is launching Halo, a new pair of glasses that, predictably for the age we live in, are being sold on the back of their AI features. Halo is a wayfarer-style pair (compared to the Panto-styled Frame) and, if you're a spectacles wearer, you'll be able to get prescription lenses in more than 100 countries thank to a partnership with SmartBuyGlasses. Brilliant is happy to brag that Halo includes a camera, microphone and bone-conduction speakers in its slender chassis. A natural pitfall of many smart glasses has been the compromises necessary to keep weight down while still offering enough functionality to be useful. Being able to keep the weight to a trim 40 grams is one hell of an achievement, especially given the glasses have a color OLED display and a battery that promises to run for 14 hours on a single charge. Unfortunately, instead of a display that overlays onto the lens, Halo "works" by projecting into your peripheral vision. I'll be honest, these displays are becoming more of an irritation the more I use them, especially compared to models that have prisms inside the lenses. Last year, Brilliant introduced Noa, its AI agent which it said was designed from the ground up to be used within the context of a pair of glasses. The company says that, when paired with Halo, Noa will be able to talk to you in a way that is natural and intuitive, as if "speaking with a real person." It claims the secret sauce is in the fact Noa will be able to "understand what it hears and sees within its environment and responds with contextually relevant information in real time." That's a lot of braggadocio, especially given the promises that come next about Narrative, its agentic memory system. Narrative will, so it is said, remember the name of a person you met or the details of a conversation you've had "years or even decades later." This will harness the glasses' optical sensors and microphones to keep tabs on what's going on from your point of view. And since audio and video are both being constantly recorded, the system will build a "private and personalized knowledge base" about you. Naturally, a pair of AI-enabled smart glasses will raise privacy hackles, and Brilliant says Noa will act as a VPN between you and the AI model behind it. Your interactions will be private by default, and users will get a lot of fine-grain privacy controls to ensure they're happy with how much data they share. Plus, you'll have voice commands to turn off the microphone, camera and the glasses themselves should you need to. Although if you're doing something you'd rather not be recorded, the smartest advice is to not wear a pair of AI glasses in the first place. Not to mention that your general concerns about having a database built of every single thing you do in a day (and your social graph) is likely to be easily de-anonymized if necessary. Brilliant also promises Halo will enable users to build custom applications for their glasses just from natural language commands. The company says that you just need to tell Noa what you need, and it'll build an app to serve your purpose "within seconds." Pre-orders for Halo are opening today, but shipping isn't due to begin until late November 2025, with the price set at $299. Compatible prescription lenses will be available to purchase through SmartBuyGlasses, too. The company is also taking great pains to tell users that it will, again, be releasing a limited number of pairs and so anyone interested in owning one will need to get in the line.

Halo smartglasses promise to see, hear, and remember your life as it happens

Pixel phones beat an unlikely competitor to retake 4th place in US sales The Halo smartglasses, the latest release from Brilliant Labs, aren't being promoted as a lifestyle-focused competitor to the Ray-Ban Meta smartglasses, but are instead being sold on the presence of the company's AI, and how it can remember the things you may otherwise forget. Related Google's upcoming XR glasses are the smart eyewear I've been waiting for It's about time Posts 10 Brilliant Labs' AI, called Noa, along with its Narrative memory mode will apparently remember "what you see, hear, and say" according to the company's blurb on its memory function. Furthermore, it'll do so not for days or weeks, but for years. In addition to remembering, it'll also be able to use reasoning to understand what may be useful in the future, and what is worth forgetting. In the announcement, the company repeatedly states your interactions will be private, and that Noa will be a trusted agent, but it has not gone into great detail about what this means. Enabling the AI's memory is an optical sensor and a set of microphones with audio detection, plus there are bone-conducting speakers for the AI to speak through. Smart glasses with a screen Unusually, the Halo also has a color projection screen, set at the top of the frame on the inside. By using a simple screen, low power components, and omitting features like Wi-Fi, Brilliant Labs claims the battery will last for about 14 hours of normal use on a single charge, so plenty for a day's worth of remembering stuff. The design is simple, and the frames weigh just 40 grams, so they should suit a variety of faces, but it's a shame to see only black as the single color option. Brilliant Labs has partnered with SmartBuyGlasses to offer prescription lenses. While Ray-Ban Meta and the Oakley Meta smart glasses will appeal to a very different crowd to the Halo, it doesn't mean they have the market to themselves. Solos has a wide range of AI-enabled smart glasses, in various styles, and with or without cameras. The Even Realities Even G1 has a geekier design but a lot of functionality, and Halliday's recently crowdfunded smart glasses also have similar AI functionality and a projection screen. If you like the look of the Brilliant Labs Halo smartglasses, they're available to pre-order now for $299, and are expected to ship before the end of the year. The AI has two tiers, with the basic, free tier providing "cost optimized" performance with a daily limit, and a subscription Plus tier for the full memory and conversational experience. Unfortunately, Brilliant Labs has not announced how much the Plus tier will cost yet, so do consider this before buying.

Brilliant Labs unveils Halo, the 'world's thinnest AI glasses' -- and it wants to be your everyday specs

These smart glasses will never let you forget a conversation Brilliant Labs, led by former Apple employee Bobak Tavangar, has announced Halo, the latest pair of AI smart glasses that aims to be your next everyday specs -- and they come packed with industry-first AI features. Claimed to be the "world's thinnest AI glasses", Halo features many of the tools from Brilliant Labs' previous Frame smart glasses. But you'll also find major updates to its AI capabilities and an all-new everyday eyewear design, with a built-in display, optical and motion sensors, bone conduction speakers and prescription lenses available. But the real focus here is all about its AI toolkit, as Halo has a few nifty tricks up its sleeve. The fully open-source AI glasses come with three standout features: While AI glasses like the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses offer features that utilize conversation AI agents and the like, Halo aims to take it a step further with its new array of AI tools -- all designed to work in thin, lightweight glasses at 1.4 ounces (40 grams) with a casual, everyday style. Let's dive into the details. Out of the best smart glasses around today, Halo leans towards the Even Realities G1 smart glasses rather than the Viture Luma Pro, with a 0.2-inch full-color microOLED heads-up display that offers a "retro arcade-style UI" rather than a full-blown virtual monitor setup. Similar to Even Realities, the smart glasses appear to house a lot of tech in the temples and temple tips, which allows for the glasses to look more casual eyewear rather than ones that look like a chunky block on one's face. Moreover, the AI glasses come with AI optical sensors to capture what you see, along with a "novel imaging and compression technique optimized for AI" to allow for longer battery life. Brilliant Labs claims Halo offers up to 14 hours of battery life. The smart specs also include built-in bone conduction speakers to allow for real-time conversations with its AI agent Noa, along wth a microphone array. Plus, it comes equipped with an IMU for motion sensing. As you'll find in the shots, the glasses appear to look more natural compared to other smart glasses on the market (swipe right for what Halo would look like on a dog). Brilliant Labs has included prescription lens options for its Halo AI glasses via its partnership with SmartBuyGlasses. Out of the box, Halo will come with non-prescription lenses with anti-reflective coating, but lens options are available for astigmatism, single vision, blue light, and sunglasses. Halo is set to deliver the company's next step in AI, and it will be interesting to see how its features measure up to the rumored "Meta Celeste" smart glasses and Apple Glasses. While the AI agent Noa can already be found in the Frame smart glasses, Brilliant Labs states the AI assistant now won't just respond, but also act on command. This includes muting the microphone and camera, entering sleep mode and more just by speaking to it. Speaking of, the Vibe Mode is a new experimental feature straight from Brilliant Labs, allowing users to speak with Noa to create custom applications. That's all without needing to know how to code. "Just tell Noa what you need, and it will generate an app within seconds that's tailored to your preferences," Brilliant Labs states. "For example, if you're a developer with an idea for a better maps application for AI glasses, which is better suited to how you navigate cities, you can prompt Noa, which will instantly query its AI coding agent to build, display and run your custom Halo application right before your eyes." It's an interesting trick for a pair of smart specs, and Halo users will also be able to share these apps with others, along with being able to remix existing generated apps and build on the functionality. Finally, Halo also offers a long-term agentic memory system, named Narrative. This essentially can recall past conversations or objects seen (via the built-in optical sensor and microphone) to help you remember what you've experienced. Or, you know, remember the name of someone you just met. "Halo is designed to act as an extension of your eyes and ears, tuned to remember and reason over your daily first-person POV experiences," Brilliant Labs claims. "In fact, while both audio and video are captured using Halo, Noa's Narrative capability analyzes the context of your life and builds a private and personalized knowledge base." Brilliant Lab's Halo AI glasses are set to ship globally in late November 2025, with prices at $299 in Matte Black via the Brilliant Labs website. However, as per the company, Halo will follow the same limited release model as the recently sold-out Frame, with only a limited number of units being made available for purchase.