Ray-Ban and Facebook Just Launched Smart Glasses That You'll Actually Want to Wear

Courtesy of Ray-Ban

Ray-Ban and Facebook have teamed up to create a new generation of smart glasses to help users record life in style.

Ray-Ban Stories may look like traditional Ray-Ban glasses — but look closely and you'll see two small cameras on either side of the lenses. Wearers can press a button and the glasses will begin recording whatever they are looking at.

The glasses were designed with the ability to take photos and videos in a split-second. If wearers can't push a button, they can simply use the voice command "Hey Facebook, take a photo," and instantly record whatever they are seeing.

The glasses are loaded with dual 5MP cameras on the front of the frames and when they're recording, a small LED light will illuminate. (So there's no such thing as truly discrete recording.) The footage comes out from a first-person perspective, so anyone watching your videos will be able to see the world, truly, from your eyes.

Courtesy of Ray-Ban

After wearers have captured video via the glasses, they'll open the "Facebook View" companion app on their phones. There, they can browse through all their footage and share it via Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp or any other app.

Customers can choose between sunglasses or clear lenses in famous Ray-Ban styles like the Wayfarer, Round, and Meteor frames. There are also options for polarized, Transitions lenses and prescription lenses.

The glasses come with built-in Bluetooth and a 3-microphone audio array so wearers can listen to music or take calls without any additional technology.

Users can set their privacy settings via the companion app and turn the glasses' tech functionality off at any time via a switch inside the arm. And a portable charging case is capable of keeping the glasses charged for up to three days.

The glasses start at $299 and are available for purchase online. Beginning Sept. 13, select locations of SunglassHut and LensCrafters will also stock the glasses.

Ray-Ban Stories is far from the first product with these capabilities. In 2017, Snapchat tried a similar product, called "Snapchat Spectacles," that was capable of recording what the wearer saw. The glasses also harken back to Google Glass, the 2015 wearables that ended up in Sweden's "Museum of Failure" just two years later.

Cailey Rizzo is a contributing writer for Travel + Leisure, currently based in Brooklyn. You can find her on Twitter, Instagram, or at caileyrizzo.com.