Meta Connect 2026: The biggest news and announcements – The Verge

Meta is making a standalone Muse AI gadget

2026-09-23T20:21:59-04:00

Meta is building a dedicated hardware device for its new Muse AI agent. The product, called Muse Charm, was briefly shown off by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the end of his Meta Connect presentation. It looks almost like a chunky smart watch without the strap - just a big screen, plus a little lanyard for carrying the device around.

The Muse Charm has a fingerprint sensor on the top right corner, which you can press to activate and begin speaking to the agent. There appears to be a small camera on the device as well, plus what looks like at least three holes for microphones on the front. Zuckerberg said you don't have to unlock a phone or op …

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Meta Connect 2026: The 7 biggest announcements

2026-09-23T20:00:33-04:00

Meta announced a slate of new wearables during its annual Meta Connect showcase on Wednesday. The star of the event was the new Meta VR Glasses, which pack virtual reality tech into a lightweight smart glasses-style frame with a tethered puck. Meta also announced new pairs of screen-free smart glasses, along with some new AI features and style and frame options.

You can catch up on all the highlights from this year's Meta Connect below.

Meta VR Glasses bring virtual reality to a lighter form factor

Meta's latest wearable offers full virtual reality in a smart glasses-style form factor. Unlike a typical VR headset, the VR Glasses don't h …

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Meta’s next VR device isn’t a headset — it’s glasses

2026-09-23T19:45:36-04:00

The Meta VR Glasses. | Photo by Brett Putman / The Verge

Meta is launching new VR hardware: a pair of glasses. The new Meta VR Glasses sit on your ears like a typical pair of glasses instead of being strapped over your head, but they still have immersive displays for watching movies, playing games, and getting work done. Imagine a pair of hefty black sunglasses with blacked-out lenses on the outside, but the components of a typical VR headset distributed between the device on your head and a computing puck in your pocket.

The idea is to give you a way to experience VR in a much lighter and more approachable form factor than Vision Pro or Meta Quest-style headsets. I got to try the VR Glasses at M …

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Muse is coming to Meta smart glasses

2026-09-23T19:40:56-04:00

Just a couple of weeks after launching Muse, Meta announced that it's "working on" bringing the agent to its smart glasses, including the new glasses it unveiled at Meta Connect. Users will be able to activate Muse from their glasses by saying its name and ask it to handle tasks like guiding a workout, logging meals, or helping them shop for products they're looking at.

Muse is just one of several major updates coming to Meta's glasses. They're also getting some new accessibility features, like a Hearing Enhancement feature Meta says is "FDA-cleared software for adults with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss." It will be available lat …

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Meta ditches the camera on its newest smart glasses

2026-09-23T19:40:34-04:00

The Ray-Ban Meta Audio Glasses have no cameras. | Photo by Brett Putman / The Verge

Walking around Meta Connect 2026, everyone's sporting smart glasses in all sorts of shapes, colors, and sizes. It's a marked difference here, a tech bubble where "pervert glasses" are not a concern.

Outside Connect, the public backlash against wearable surveillance tech - a catchall term that encompasses not just smart glasses, but also smartwatches and AI pendants - is gaining steam. So it's incredibly curious timing that this year, the company is launching Ray-Ban Meta Audio Glasses: smart glasses infused with Meta AI, but with no camera for recording others.

To hear Meta tell it, that's a coincidence. Audio-only glasses have been years …

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Meta is making Muse more powerful and will let you video chat with it, too

2026-09-23T19:19:42-04:00

Meta is quickly iterating on its new Muse AI agent, announcing a bunch of updates today that make the bot more capable and able to chat with you in more ways.

Muse agents are getting their own email addresses that they can use for accomplishing tasks. You'll also be able to communicate with your Muse agent over the new email addresses, too. In addition, the recently launched Muse Mac app will be getting the ability to use your computer.

Meta is also going to give you another way to chat with its popular AI agent: video calls. Since its recent launch, the primary way to talk with Muse was through a chat interface, but you'll soon be able to …

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Meta Connect 2026 live blog: On the ground at Mark Zuckerberg’s next big product launch

2026-09-23T20:01:26-04:00

It's time once again for Meta's annual September product launch event, and The Verge is on the ground in Menlo Park to cover the show live. Meta says that today's keynote by Mark Zuckerberg will be about how "Meta is building a future for everyone" - something he wrote at length about in a recent essay about AI, smart glasses, and more. That means we can expect more news from Zuckerberg and his team on those topics; perhaps we'll hear more about Meta's recently launched Muse AI agent and new glasses hardware.

Whatever Zuckerberg and Meta have to say about smart glasses will be particularly notable. The company is dealing with an outpouring …

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