With Meta Connect 2025 now in the rear view mirror, the company has made its first real step towards everyday AR glasses with the Meta Ray-Ban Display specs. But in the company's announcement blog post, one thing stuck out to me: confirmation that Meta is “continuing to make progress on a consumer version” of its Orion prototype.
Well, we just got more news on that from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, as he reports that the company is already working aggressively on a new set of smart glasses that pack two displays — one on each lens.
AR-e you as excited as I am?
My only gripe with the Meta Ray-Ban Display is that you’re limited to one display in the right eye. That could pose a bit of a visibility challenge, and there are already consumer glasses that can project into both eyes like the Rokid Glasses.
This would resolve that nicely and give you a more visible centralized image and better capabilities to overlay real-world objects with additional information. As I found out from testing Snap OS 2.0, that’s the key to unlocking genuinely helpful AI and the next step of computing on-the-go.
Throw in what I can only assume will be further progress on control using that EMG gesture wristband, and these are starting to sound like another generational jump forward towards that vision of true AR glasses.
The only question is when?
So according to the report, the initial target was 2027, but Meta is moving the schedule up and has already started working on dual-display glasses. No specific release window has been mentioned, but realistically, I’d say you could see these announced at Connect 2026.
On one hand, that’s a good thing. With a new category like this, it pays to be first and get them into people's hands. Especially with the likes of Snap Specs, Android XR and Apple’s own rumored smart glasses on the way, that lead is critical to keep.
Plus, as a naturally impatient person, I love it when companies just get on with it and launch new stuff the moment it’s ready to go. But here’s the problem with that — iterative progress does mean you could end up grabbing something, only to see drastic progress made the next year.
I know I get roasted for my “forget *insert name of product here*” rumor posts (I see you, Reddit), because you’d just be waiting for years to buy anything if you did. But given the stakes could be the difference between dual-display specs with some AR sprinkled on top and full-blown AR computing, it may be worth waiting and seeing what comes down the line.
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