Everything announced at Meta Connect 2026

For this year’s iteration of Meta Connect, company CEO Mark Zuckerberg opened with the tagline “the future is for everyone.”

The company believes it can achieve that through Meta’s “personal superintelligence” Muse — its recently launched personal AI agent. Muse sat at the center of almost all the announcements and products that Zuckerberg and company unveiled during the brief one-hour keynote (which is pretty short for a tech keynote). Zuckerberg said he expects Muse to become a superintelligence used by billions of people one day, and nearly every hardware announcement tied back to it.

What was largely missing was the Metaverse. Facebook renamed itself Meta in 2021 to signal its bet on shared virtual worlds, and it has since lost an estimated $80 billion on the effort through its Reality Labs division. Compared with 2025, this year’s keynote barely mentioned the Metaverse.” It really does seem that the company’s namesake is gone. (For now, at least.)

Instead, Meta is focused on its new wearables, including a new, slimmer pair of VR glasses. Instead of being a doorway into virtual worlds, Zuckerberg and Co. pitched them as a way to watch movies, play games, and stream live sports. Based on the keynote, Meta seems all-in on personal AI and the devices that carry it.

Here’s everything Meta announced.

Muse, Meta’s personal AI agent

Meta’s biggest focus was Muse, which is built to act as a personal agent. According to Meta, Muse can set goals, share ideas, and customize your feed, and users can adjust its personality.

Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang walked through examples of what Muse can do. He spoke of Muse finding a replacement match for a broken vase, planning a vacation, and moving the dates to avoid bad weather, and even negotiating down an insurance bill. “Muse makes you money,” Meta said on stage.

Muse is free for now, but Zuckerberg said that “over time we will profit by taking a small fee from transactions.”

Muse computer use and connectors

Starting today, Muse can operate a user’s Mac. With permission, Meta says it can run any program in the background, even when the user isn’t at the computer. Meta also said Muse will eventually be able to work in users’ email.

Meta is also launching connectors, which link third-party apps to Muse. Retailers, including Walmart, Best Buy, Gap, and Sephora, are integrating with Muse so that it can shop and purchase items on their behalf, and Meta is working with Stripe and Shopify on the shopping experience. Expedia is joining for travel, Instacart is coming soon, and Box, GitHub, and Granola are also on board. Meta also said it is launching the Connector Platform, enabling developers to build their own Muse integrations.

Muse on Meta glasses

“We’re making personal superintelligence wearable,” Zuckerberg said during the keynote, adding that he believes all glasses will eventually become AI glasses. He called glasses the only form factor that lets people interact with their personal agent the way Meta intends.

In a live demo, Zuckerberg held a real-time conversation through his glasses with his Muse assistant, which he’d named Agrippa. He also asked it to search his calendar for meetings for a “handheld device” he and the team were working on. Meta says it is upgrading its glasses so the AI can give more contextual responses. It also introduced Muse Voice, which lets users customize the assistant’s voice.

Meta also showed off how Muse can help with fitness and health in a pre-recorded video with MMA content creator Nina Marie Daniele (known online as Nina Drama). Muse functions similarly to Siri AI on Apple Watch, including building workout routines and suggesting meals to order when viewing the restaurant menu.

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Meta Ray-Ban Gen 3

Zuckerberg announced the third generation of the company’s Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses, which will now be available in over 51 different styles. The new generation will also include a more affordable entry point for users, as a future Adventurer model will start at just $249.

You can order the standard Meta Ray-Ban Gen 3 glasses on the Meta and Ray-Ban websites now, with prices starting at $449 (or $399 for the Lisa from Blackpink edition).

The new Meta Ray-Bans have more microphones for clearer audio and better noise reduction, and Zuckerberg said they can even be used on a jetski.

Camera-free audio glasses

Zuckerberg introduced Meta’s first glasses without a camera. Until now, every pair of Meta’s smart glasses has included a built-in camera for photos, video, and AI features that rely on seeing what the wearer sees. The new audio glasses drop that feature and focus on sound instead.

Meta says the audio glasses have the longest battery life of any of its glasses, likely helped by the absence of a camera. The company also says they’ll be the thinnest Ray-Bans it has made, while still coming in classic styles like the Clubmaster.

“They have to be great glasses first,” Zuckerberg said. His point was that smart glasses still have to look and feel like regular eyewear if people are going to wear them all day.

The camera-free design also addresses one of the biggest criticisms of Meta’s glasses. Critics have called the camera-equipped models “pervert glasses” because some content creators have used them to secretly film strangers, often women, and post the videos online. Removing the camera eliminates that concern for anyone who wants smart glasses without it.

The launch also puts Meta in closer competition with audio-first eyewear such as Amazon’s Echo Frames and Bose’s audio sunglasses. Per the Ray-Ban website, the glasses are available for pre-order, with the cheapest option being $349, and will ship in mid-October.

Hearing Enhancement is also a big part of the experience, with Zuckerberg claiming it to be the feature he was most proud of. Meta claims that its glasses are now FDA-certified hearing aids, designed for people with mild to moderate hearing loss. Meta says the feature is free to try and will cost a one-time $149 payment to enable.

Meta announced the third generation of its Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which now have six microphones and Dolby Atmos spatial audio. Meta also said its Adventure-style Meta glasses now cost $249.

Meta VR glasses — coming in spring 2027

Meta revealed new VR glasses, a remarkably slimmer and more mobile pair of glasses compared to the Meta Quest lineup. Zuckerberg said the glasses are five times lighter than the Meta Quest 3 and weigh about as much as a deck of cards. He also called their display the best Meta has ever made, with richer colors and darker blacks.

Users can control the glasses with small hand gestures and type on an AR keyboard. Meta says they’re the first IMAX-certified VR device, and they include Muse, which can work in the background.

On the entertainment side, the glasses will launch with 75 games, but will also support the Quest library with attached controllers, as well as Xbox Cloud Gaming. A Disney+ app with 3D releases is coming later this year, and Meta said other streamers will add 3D shows and movies as well.

For sports, the glasses will support the major leagues, plus the UFC and English Premier League. Additionally, some live sporting events will let users watch from different spots in the stadium, which Meta demonstrated with a Texas Longhorns game.

Notably, users can also appear as full-body holograms on calls. Trying out the glasses was Meta executive Andrew Bosworth joked that Meta had “solved the problem of having legs in VR.” Bosworth claimed that the Meta VR glasses are “the sexiest pair of [VR] glasses you’ve ever seen.”

The Meta VR glasses will cost $1,299 and launch in spring 2027.

Muse Charm

Meta closed the keynote with Muse Charm, a small, always-on handheld device for people who don’t wear smart glasses. Zuckerberg said it’s the fastest way to talk to Muse outside of Meta’s glasses, and it’s the same device he discussed with Agrippa during his live demos.

Muse Charm will ship by the holidays in December. Meta did not announce a price and said more details will come later. The device enters a category where earlier standalone AI gadgets, including Humane’s AI Pin and the Rabbit R1, struggled to catch on.

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TopicsArtificial IntelligenceVirtual RealityMeta

Chance Townsend is the General Assignments Editor at Mashable, covering tech, video games, dating apps, digital culture, and whatever else comes his way. He has a Master’s in Journalism from the University of North Texas and is a proud orange cat father. His writing has also appeared in PC Mag and Mother Jones.

In his free time, he cooks, loves to sleep, and greatly enjoys Detroit sports. If you have any tips or want to talk shop about the Lions, you can reach out to him on Bluesky @offbrandchance.bsky.social, by email at [email protected], or on Signal at 224-417-6628.