Meta Ray-Ban Display gets widgets, calendar app and new games

Meta's first smart glasses with a display are getting a whole host of new features this month. The biggest innovation is probably interactive widgets, which allow users to keep an eye on calendar appointments, reminders, weather, and stocks without having to take their smartphone out of their pocket. In addition, live activities such as currently playing music are displayed in the same place.

The calendar app is new and displays appointments and details about events, provided the glasses are linked to Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar via the Meta AI app. Meta's other smart glasses have the same calendar access but without a visual display.

Also new is an Instagram Reels feed, where users can watch, like, save, and share short videos. All these interactions can be performed via microgestures of the fingers, which the included Meta Neural Band recognizes. For entertainment, there are also two new mini-games: the vertical platformer “GOAT” and a version of the open-source number puzzle game “2048.” Both are also controlled via the Meta Neural Band.

When making calls, you can now have what the person you are talking to is saying displayed in English. The live captioning is intended to help, among other things, to follow conversations better in noisy environments. It complements the already available live captioning and translation for conversations with people in close proximity.

Spotify plays music to match your field of vision

Finally, there are also two new Spotify features. Users can now access their favorite playlists, recently played tracks, or liked songs directly with the Meta Neural Band. In addition, the glasses can play music to match what you are currently seeing, such as a sunset, an album cover, or a concert poster, if desired.

The March update follows an update from January. This brought a teleprompter app and the ability to write text messages in WhatsApp and Messenger by tracing letters on a fixed surface – such as a table or your leg – with your finger. This handwriting now also supports Instagram direct messages as well as SMS and RCS messages on Android smartphones.

The Meta Ray-Ban Display was launched in the USA in September 2025. The product was actually supposed to be released in other countries in early 2026, but Meta put these plans on hold due to supply bottlenecks. Whether and when the Meta Ray-Ban Display will be released internationally remains unclear. According to a Bloomberg report, a successor model is planned for this year. It remains to be seen whether this will also be made available internationally.

(mho)