Meta plans AI pendant and four new smart glasses models as Reality Labs pushes wearables

Reviewed byNidhi Govil

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Meta is developing an AI-powered pendant that records and transcribes conversations, building on its Limitless acquisition. The company plans to test the device in 2027 while releasing up to four new smart glasses models by year-end 2026. An internal memo reveals Meta aims to sell 10 million wearables in the second half of 2026 and launch a business subscription service called Wearables for Work.

Meta Develops AI Pendant Following Limitless Acquisition

Meta is developing an AI pendant that will record and transcribe conversations throughout the day, with testing planned to begin in 2027 according to an internal memo from Alex Himel, Meta's vice president of wearables

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. The AI-powered pendant builds directly on Meta's acquisition of Limitless in December 2025, a startup that created a clip-on device for recording and summarizing conversations

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. The original Limitless Pendant, priced at $199, offered users roughly 20 hours of free recording, transcription and summarization every month through an accompanying app available on iOS, Android, and web

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Source: Analytics Insight

Source: Analytics Insight

The Limitless acquisition brought more than just hardware to Meta. CEO Dan Siroker stated at the time that Meta's vision for "personal superintelligence" through wearables aligned with what Limitless was building

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. The startup had raised more than $33 million from investors including Sam Altman and Andreessen Horowitz before Meta acquired it

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. While the original pendants have ceased production following the acquisition, Meta promised to support existing users for a year

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Four New Smart Glasses Models Planned for 2026

Meta is preparing an aggressive expansion of its smart glasses lineup with up to four new models set to release before the year ends

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. According to the internal memo, the first pair codenamed "Modelo" will debut as soon as June, followed by "Luna" and "RBM2 Refresh" in fall, with the final pair called "Mojito VIP" arriving in December

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. The "RBM2 Refresh" designation indicates another Ray-Ban collaboration, though Meta is planning to expand beyond its existing partnerships with Ray-Ban and Oakley

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Source: Mashable

Source: Mashable

Meta has also registered several new pairs of smart glasses with the Federal Communications Commission under the Meta name rather than partner brands, suggesting the company may be working with new hardware partners

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. Additional models named "Artemis" and "SSG" (or "supersensing" glasses) are reportedly in testing for future releases

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. All new glasses will be powered by Meta's AI models, along with an unreleased AI agent called Hatch that is currently under development

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Wearables for Work Targets Enterprise Market

Meta is launching a business-focused subscription service called Wearables for Work, positioning its AI-powered wearable devices as productivity tools rather than consumer novelties

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. The enterprise tier could add meeting transcription, ambient note-taking, CRM integration, and hands-free access to workplace tools, mirroring Microsoft's Copilot subscription model but delivered through hardware

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. Himel wrote in the memo that the goal is to get more people to use the company's AI models and compel them to pay for subscriptions, including subscriptions for Hatch

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Meta is targeting at least 10 companies to sign up for Wearables for Work and aims for deployments to at least two large organizations that need 100 devices each

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. The company's goal is to sell 10 million wearable devices in the second half of 2026, not just by launching new products but also by making them available in more countries

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. This aggressive expansion comes as Meta recently launched subscription tiers with exclusive features for Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp through a new monthly payment system called Meta One

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Reality Labs Losses Drive Wearables Push

The ambitious plans to expand AI-powered wearable devices come amid severe losses at Reality Labs, Meta's hardware division. Reality Labs lost $4.03 billion in the first quarter of 2026 alone, with revenue of just $402 million

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. The division lost $19 billion in 2025 and has accumulated losses exceeding $60 billion since its creation

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Source: ET

Source: ET

Despite these losses, Meta sold more than seven million Ray-Ban smart glasses in 2025 and commands roughly 82% of the smart glasses market

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. Mark Zuckerberg told investors during Meta's earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2025 that Reality Labs is going to focus on glasses and wearables going forward, and that the company expects the division's losses to gradually become smaller

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. Meta's approach differs from failed AI pendant competitors like Humane's AI Pin and Friend, as it already has a proven wearables business with demonstrated consumer demand

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Privacy Concerns Shadow Ambient AI Capture

The expansion into wearable technology that enables ambient AI capture raises significant privacy concerns. David Harris, a former Meta AI researcher and lecturer at UC Berkeley, told BBC News that technology "like this is fundamentally an invasion of privacy and it's really going to face more and more backlash"

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. Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses have already faced lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny over how they handle footage captured by their built-in cameras

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A pendant that continuously records conversations raises the same concerns in a more intimate form factor. The regulatory environment in the EU, where Meta faces ongoing Digital Markets Act enforcement and GDPR scrutiny, could constrain where the device is sold

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. Other always-recording AI wearables have been met with backlash, including Friend, an AI-powered necklace that had posters advertising its launch defaced in New York

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. Whether Meta's AI pendant succeeds where competitors like Humane and Friend failed depends on whether the company can make ambient recording useful enough that people will wear it, and trustworthy enough that those around them will tolerate it

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