Meta Unveils Handheld AI Device Charm, Expands Muse Across Glasses Lineup

Meta has introduced a small handheld device called Meta Charm, designed around its new Muse AI assistant, as the company pushes its hardware ambitions beyond smart glasses.

The gadget, roughly the size of an AirPods case, carries a touchscreen of about two inches and a built-in 5G connection. Meta said Charm will be ready to ship for the December holidays but did not disclose a price.

Speaking at the company's annual Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, California, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the device packs the full Muse experience, including real-time voice and avatar features, into something that fits on a keychain and is always available for conversation.

The launch reflects a wider race across Silicon Valley to find a successor to the smartphone. Firms are investing heavily in devices built around AI assistants that can see, hear and respond to their surroundings, spanning smart glasses, wearable pins and handheld gadgets. Which form factor will reach the mainstream remains uncertain.

Meta's first success in the category came through its Ray-Ban partnership with EssilorLuxottica. On Wednesday, the company also showed its first virtual-reality device slim enough to resemble ordinary glasses, alongside a pair of camera-free smart glasses aimed at easing privacy concerns around AI devices that can capture images and video without consent.

Muse becomes the interface

Meta said it is expanding Muse across its smart glasses lineup, adding capabilities such as computer use and integrations with retailers and services including Walmart, Best Buy and Gap. The assistant is set to become the primary interface for the glasses, letting users shop, book appointments and complete tasks through voice commands.

The VR glasses, priced at $1,299, are intended to match bulkier and more expensive rivals such as Apple's Vision Pro. Weighing about as much as a deck of playing cards, the device moves its battery and processor into a separate puck. It is slated to launch in spring 2027.

Looking like dark wraparound frames, the headset responds to eye, voice and hand gestures. Meta is betting it can bring a category long constrained by high prices and heavy headsets into the mainstream.

Linda Sui, founder of market research firm Smart Analytics Group, said bringing the weight down to around 100 grams is impressive and could improve the user experience. She added, however, that core use cases remain broadly similar to earlier VR headsets and that the higher price could make it difficult to reach mainstream consumers.

Camera-free glasses

The new camera-free model, Ray-Ban Meta Audio, will still record audio and offers no clear signal to bystanders that recording is underway, unlike Meta's camera-equipped glasses, which flash a light while filming. Critics argue that removing the cameras alone may not be enough to address privacy concerns.

The Audio glasses, the latest from the EssilorLuxottica tie-up, ship from October 13 at a starting price of $349 — $100 less than the newest version of the Ray-Ban glasses, which retain cameras and will come in two new styles, the Aviator and the cat-eyed Zena.

Meta has been at the centre of growing concerns about devices that work better the more they see and hear, prompting privacy lawsuits and bans at some UK venues. How that debate unfolds could shape a market that technology companies see as the next major computing platform and a potential replacement for smartphones.

Jitesh Ubrani, a director at market research firm IDC, said the company is addressing some privacy issues but that audio can still be misused or recorded without consent, calling consent the key question. He said Meta needs to find a way to warn people they are being recorded, even if it is audio only.

Dropping the cameras may also dampen demand, since capturing photos and video ranks among the most popular features of smart glasses, and it puts the device in direct competition with audio-only products such as Apple's AirPods.

Meta said privacy was not the only reason for the audio-only design and that a market exists for smart glasses without cameras. The company said audio has been its most popular feature since day one because the glasses deliver high-quality sound without cutting users off from their surroundings.

Removing the cameras allowed Meta to build its thinnest pair yet, weighing about as much as a golf ball, and opened up new designs including the browline Clubmaster and the squared, retro Burbank. Battery life has also been stretched to 12 hours on a single charge, compared with nine hours on the latest third-generation Ray-Ban glasses.