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Meta’s smart glasses have proved a hit for the company, and leaked internal documents suggest it may soon add facial recognition to help it stay ahead of growing competition from rivals like Apple, Samsung, and Snap.
According to a report from The New York Times, Meta plans to add a feature called Name Tag to its smart glasses to identify people the user meets in public and gather online information about them through its AI assistant.
The report cites four anonymous sources familiar with the plans, and an internal memo from May 2025 outlining Meta's ideas. This report matches a similar story from The Information, published last May, close to the date of the now-leaked internal memo.
These sources say Meta is exploring multiple ideas for how facial-tracking tech could work. One example provided suggests Meta AI may share details when it knows two users are connected on a platform, such as Facebook or Instagram, while another suggests it may work when the user has a public account on one of its services.
The internal memo also said Meta intended to first introduce Name Tag at a conference for the blind in 2025. That event came and went without an announcement, so Meta's plans may have since changed.
Meta's messaging confirms it knows this feature will prove controversial with privacy advocates. The memo from its Reality Labs says, “We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns.”
Meta previously shut down a face-scanning tool on Facebook. It was designed to make it easier to tag other people in an image, but came under fire from regulators and privacy campaigners, leading the brand to remove it in 2021.
The then VP of artificial intelligence at Meta, Jerome Pesenti, said, "Every new technology brings with it potential for both benefit and concern, and we want to find the right balance."